MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Work to establish a safety zone around the Zaporozhye NPP is steadily moving ahead, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, said on Wednesday.

"As a matter of fact, there are no agreements yet [to establish a safety zone around ZNPP], although the work continues. It’s going slowly, unfortunately, but is still moving ahead," he said on Rossiya-24 television.

Commenting on French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement that the International Atomic Energy Agency achieved a withdrawal of light and heavy weapons from the ZNPP, Ulyanov said none of it was true.

"No heavy weaponry has ever been deployed there, while a limited number of light weapons is absolutely necessary, and the presence of armored personnel carriers has nothing to do with security, nuclear security," the diplomat said.

Ulyanov said he regularly communicates with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and the agency’s employee that’s in charge of political affairs, and their conversations are constructive.

"It must be clear: What was proposed by Grossi is far from the idea of demilitarizing the plant that Western leaders and the UN secretary general spoke about. No, it’s something else. A demilitarization isn’t suggested, nor is it possible to demilitarize the plant because it’s not militarized: It has National Guard units, radiological, chemical and biological protection troops, small units that aren’t part of the military," he said.

"Under Grossi’s proposal, they all have the right to stay there. There will be no pullout. But there’s no heavy weapons there," Ulyanov said.

Situation around the ZNPP

CEO of Russia’s Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Alexey Likhachev said earlier that the safety model that was being discussed with Grossi required an end to any shelling of the power plant. He said Russia doesn’t keep any offensive weapons at the plant, but maintains means of physical defense and to protect the facility.

On Tuesday, Macron said concrete steps were currently being discussed to remove heavy weapons from the Zaporozhye NPP. In his words, "agreements about the withdrawal of light and heavy weaponry have been reached, and the discussion is currently focused on practical steps to implement them."

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has discussed establishing a security zone at the power plant and the agency’s regular missions at Ukraine’s other nuclear plants at a Paris meeting with Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denis Shmygal. In a statement issued after the talks, the IAEA said Grossi and Shmygal have "made some progress" in security zone discussions.