The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, in her author's program on the radio station "Sputnik", broadcasting on the frequencies of the liquidated "Echo of Moscow", touched on the situation around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant seized by Russian invaders:
“The visit of the IAEA delegation to the Zaporizhzhya NPP has been waiting for not only the station staff, but the whole world,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the air of her own program on Sputnik radio.
It became known yesterday that UN Secretary General António Guterres will meet in Lviv on Thursday with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Zelensky. It is noted that after the trilateral meeting, he will go to Odessa, where he will visit one of the three ports participating in the “product deal”.
“If the Secretary General of the United Nations goes on a visit to the territory of Ukraine, then, frankly, I don’t understand why the delegation of the IAEA – a UN structure, one of the branches of the large UN family – why the delegation of the IAEA cannot go, from the point of view of the UN Secretariat, to the Zaporozhye NPP?” asked Maria Zakharova.
According to her, against the background of what the Kyiv regime is doing in relation to the safety of nuclear power plants, not only the plant personnel, but the whole world has been waiting for representatives of the IAEA.
The program, in which Zakharova accused the UN secretariat of obstructing the visit of the IAEA delegation to the power plant, was released on August 17. But two days before that, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric clarified the position of the secretariat. The UN website says:
“The UN Secretariat does not have the right to block or cancel any action by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This was announced by the UN Press Secretary Stephane Dujarric in response to "repeated statements by a number of Russian officials" that the UN Secretariat had allegedly prevented the visit of the IAEA representatives to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
“I would like to clarify a few points,” said Dujarric. – Firstly, the IAEA is a specialized agency that has complete independence in the implementation of its specific mandate. Secondly, the UN Secretariat does not have the right to block or cancel any action by the IAEA.”
Thirdly, according to him, the UN Secretariat believes that its logistics and security capabilities will support the implementation of any IAEA mission to the Zaporozhye NPP from Kyiv if Ukraine and Russia agree to such a trip.”
In the evening of the same day, the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, announced that he was ready to personally lead the mission. But after midnight , a message from RIA Novosti appeared:
“It is unsafe to deliver a mission of IAEA experts to the Zaporozhye NPP through Kyiv, for this it would be necessary to cross the front line,” Deputy Director of the Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control of the Foreign Ministry Igor Vishnevetsky told reporters. <…>
“Imagine what it means through Kyiv – it means that they will enter the Zaporizhzhya NPP through the front line. This is a huge risk, given that the Ukrainian armed forces are heterogeneous armed formations,” Vyshnevetsky explained.
According to him, not only employees of the Ministry of Defense are fighting on the side of Kyiv, but representatives of the territorial defense, nationalist battalions, who are not subordinate to the official department.
“That is, these people can commit any provocation. Anything could happen if the IAEA delegation went across the front line. She would, for example, be fired at or something else would be done against her. And in order to pass it off as a Russian provocation, these people are ready for anything,” the diplomat said.
Thus, it is Russia that actually does not give consent to the visit of the IAEA mission, despite all the regrets of Zakharova. As for the Foreign Ministry's arguments about the heterogeneity of Ukrainian forces and the fact that some of them are not under the control of official departments, this is not true. The Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine are a separate branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; the commander of these troops is directly subordinate to the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The volunteer formations created in 2014 are now part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the National Guard.
