According to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia NPP can begin to restore security at the plant.
“With this mission, the restoration of full security at the ZNPP and Enerhodar can begin. And I am grateful to everyone who joined this work and initiative,” he said.
At the same time, the president warned that if Russian “radiation blackmail continues, this summer may go down in the history of various European countries as one of the most tragic of all time.”
We will remind you that the Zaporizhzhia NPP in Enerhodar has been occupied by Russian troops since March 4.
The station continues to work under the leadership of “Energoatom” on the energy system of Ukraine, but not at full capacity, because many lines around it are damaged. Communication with the staff is available around the clock. At the same time, the occupiers fully control security at the ZNPP: staff access to workplaces, passage/exit to the station. Workers report regular cases of abuse by Russians against them. In particular, employees were deprived of access to the shelter.
Recently, the Russian military has been consistently shelling the territory of the station. “Energoatom” warns that the shelling is being carried out to destroy the infrastructure, disconnect it from the energy system of Ukraine and cut off electricity in the south of our country. Talks about reconnecting the ZNPP to the RF power grid were conducted by the occupiers from the beginning.
On August 8, the occupiers announced that they were demining the Zaporizhzhia NPP and that they were ready to blow it up. Ukraine sent letters to the UN and the IAEA with the demand to send a security mission to the ZNPP.
On August 11, a meeting of the UN Security Council regarding the situation at the Zaporizhia NPP was held in New York. The meeting was called at the request of Russia due to shelling of the ZNPP allegedly by the Ukrainian military.
The representative of Ukraine called for demilitarization of the station for the visit of the IAEA mission, but the permanent representative of the Russian Federation did not support this proposal.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation stated that the trip of the IAEA delegation to the Zaporizhzhya NPP via Kyiv and then across the contact line was dangerous.
