Russia on Thursday reaffirmed accusations that Ukraine hides weapons and ammunition it receives from Western allies in the country’s nuclear power plants, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported.
“This allows Kiev, under the cover of nuclear power plants, to accumulate military aid and not expose it to the danger of destruction,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said in an interview with the official TASS agency, released on the eve of the first anniversary. of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Galuzin said that Moscow informed the international community and, in particular, the leadership of the IAEA, which called for inspectors of the UN specialized agency to closely monitor “what is being done at the nuclear power plants in Ukraine and near its perimeters”.
Ukraine currently has 15 nuclear reactors at four power plants built when the country was part of the Soviet Union.
One of these plants, the one in Zaporizhia, with six reactors, is the largest in Europe, having been occupied by Russian forces since the first days of the invasion.
kyiv authorities have denied these accusations by Moscow about the use of nuclear power plants to store weapons supplied by its Western allies.
Galuzin told TASS that the situation at the facilities of the plants is currently controlled by IAEA representatives, who are there permanently on the instructions of the UN agency’s director general, Rafael Grossi.
This Monday, Grossi denounced that the planned rotation of the three IAEA experts present at the Zaporizhia plant since the beginning of January was postponed for more than two weeks, with the replacement team already in Ukraine.
“The nuclear safety and security situation in Ukraine, especially at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, remains dangerous and unpredictable,” Grossi said in a statement issued by the IAEA.
Grossi has been involved in talks in kyiv and Moscow for the creation of a buffer zone around the Zaporizhia power plant, arguing that the situation is volatile and unpredictable because it is an active combat zone.
Mikhail Galuzin told TASS that Russia expects IAEA technicians to carry out their mission “with all responsibility” and report on the “objective picture of what is happening.”
Gluzin, one of the nine deputy ministers of the ministry headed by Sergei Lavrov, confirmed that consultations are underway with the IAEA on the creation of a security zone in Zaporizhia, but without providing any information.
“While the negotiations are ongoing, it would be premature to reveal information about the possible moment to reach an agreement and its parameters in the public space,” he justified.
He admitted that the dialogue on this topic “does not develop easily”, but said that the objective is defined.
From Moscow’s perspective, it is about “doing everything necessary to prevent Ukrainian attacks on the station and avoid an emergency, especially a man-made catastrophe with unforeseeable consequences.”
The IAEA already has missions in all the nuclear power plants in Ukraine and also in Chernobyl, located in the north of the country, which was the scene of the most serious nuclear accident in history in 1986, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.
Nuclear power plants produced more than half of the electricity consumed in Ukraine before the war.
Source: TSF
