Thorny. Ukraine opposes the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi visiting the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia (south) as long as it is occupied by the Russians, indicated on Tuesday the Ukrainian operator of nuclear power plants. “Ukraine has not invited Mr. Grossi to visit the Zaporizhia power plant and has refused him in the past to make such a visit. A visit to the plant will only become possible when Ukraine regains control over the site,” Ukrainian operator Energoatom wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.
Rafael Grossi wrote on Twitter on Monday that the IAEA was preparing an expert mission to the Zaporizhia power plant, the largest in Europe and occupied by Russian forces since the start of the Russian invasion, assuring that Ukraine had “asked for it”. “IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi is lying again,” denounced Energoatom. “We consider this declaration as a new attempt to gain access to the Zaporijjia power plant to legitimize the presence of the occupants there and approve their actions”, continues Energoatom.
“The loss of communication” between the IAEA and the plant is due to the fact that the Russians blocked the Ukrainian mobile operator Vodafone on the site, according to Energoatom. “The data accumulates on the servers and will be transmitted to the IAEA when the operator is operational again”, adds Energoatom.
Fright in Zaporijjia at the start of the conflict
Russia threatened on May 19 to cut Ukraine off from its Zaporizhia nuclear power plant unless kyiv paid Moscow for the electricity produced. This statement joins that of other Russian officials in recent weeks who suggest that Russia is preparing a lasting occupation or even annexation of the areas of southern Ukraine it controls, the Kherson region and part of that of Zaporizhia.
VIDEO. Russia bombs Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant, Zelensky worries about ‘a nuclear disaster’
In 2021, i.e. before the Russian offensive against Ukraine launched on February 24, the plant supplied 20% of Ukraine’s annual electricity production and 47% of that produced by the Ukrainian nuclear fleet. Moscow forces took control in early March of this plant located in the city of Energodar, in southern Ukraine, separated by the Dnipro river (Dnieper in Russian) from the regional capital Zaporijjia, which is still under Ukrainian control.