VIENNA, June 8. /TASS/. The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi claims that the international agency was never involved in possible talks on the deployment of US nuclear weapons in several Baltic countries and Poland, according to the IAEA statement released on Monday.
"We are not involved, we are not a nuclear weapon organization," Grossi told reporters at a news conference in Vienna. "These matters are in the realm of the defense policies of these countries."
Local Mayor Maxim Pukhov announced on late Sunday night that that three civilians were injured as Energodar, the satellite city of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), came under massive Ukrainian attack. According to him, two bank offices and a residential building were damaged, with one apartment burned down.
Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev told Vesti reporter Pavel Zarubin in a comment last week that: "By attacking the Zaporozhye nuke plant, Kiev seems to be pursuing the task of ‘terrorizing’ the staff."
On June 5, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Grossi and Likhachev declared a "silence regime" around the ZNPP to allow for repairs of one of the two backup power lines to the nuclear facility, damaged in hostilities and not operating since March 24.
The Zaporozhye NPP is located on the shores of the Kakhovka Reservoir in Energodar. It is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, with six power units capable of producing a combined 6 GW of electricity.
Since 2022, the Ukrainian forces have been shelling both residential areas of Energodar and the plant's grounds with artillery and drone strikes. Since September 2022, experts from the IAEA mission have been permanently stationed at the plant. Their composition is regularly rotated.