The United Nations has the logistical and security capabilities to support a visit by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, a spokesman said, but a Russian diplomat set conditions, saying that sending any mission through the capital of Ukraine is too dangerous. .
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, speaking on Monday, also said: “The UN Secretariat does not have the authority to block or cancel any activity of the IAEA.” Dujarric was responding to Russian accusations that UN security services had blocked a visit by IAEA inspectors to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which Russia seized in March after invading Ukraine on February 24.
He said that “in close contact with the IAEA, the UN Secretariat assessed that Ukraine has the logistical and security capabilities to be able to support any IAEA mission to the Zaporozhye NPP from Kyiv.” But he said that both Russia and Ukraine should agree.
Both countries said they wanted a visit by IAEA inspectors. The head of the IAEA, Raphael Grossi, declared his readiness to lead the mission and called on Russia and Ukraine to cooperate.
In Moscow, Russian news agencies quoted a senior diplomat as saying that such a mission could not pass through Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, as proposed by the United Nations.
“Imagine what it means to pass through Kyiv – it means that they get to the nuclear power plant through the front line,” Ihar Vyshniavetskyi, deputy head of the Department for Combating Nuclear Weapons and Control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying.
“This is a big risk, given that the armed forces of Ukraine are not all formed in the same way,” he was quoted as saying.
Russia describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special military operation” and accuses Kiev’s military — and most of its political structures — of subservience to nationalists and “Nazis.”
The TASS news agency, citing Vishnivetskyi, said that any such mission does not have a mandate to “demilitarize” the nuclear power plant, as Kyiv demands, since it can only deal with “implementing IAEA guarantees.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for an end to military activity around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, as Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for shelling the area.
On Monday, Guterres spoke with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shaigu about the safe working conditions of Zaporozhye, the United Nations and Russia reported.
