‘It’s terrible’:Zelenskyy says Russia trying to turn IAEA’s nuclear plant inspection into ‘useless tour’: Ukraine Russia war

‘It’s terrible’:Zelenskyy says Russia trying to turn IAEA’s nuclear plant inspection into ‘useless tour’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said that despite all of the Russian military’s provocations, International Atomic Energy Agency mission has reached the plant.

In the wake of the brutal Moscow-Kyiv war, the embattled Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said that despite all of the Russian military’s provocations and deceitful bombardment of Ukraine’s Enerhodar and the territory of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission has reached the plant.

In his night video address to the citizens, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has made every effort to complete its task. However, he claimed while referring to Russia, “It is terrible that the occupiers are trying to turn this IAEA mission – a really necessary one – into a fruitless tour of the plant.”

Speaking about the discussion with the Director-General of IAEA, Zelenskyy said that they had decided to permit journalists from Ukrainian and independent journalists as well as foreign media to accompany the mission to make the truth known to the world and “to see what is really happening.”

However, Zelenskyy highlighted that it did not happen. He said, “the occupiers did not let the journalists in, but organised a bunch of their propagandists.”

Zelenskyy on IAEA mission at Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility


In addition to this, the Ukrainian President emphasised that they are optimistic that the mission would nonetheless make unbiased judgments on the situation at the facility. He even noted that prior to Russia’s invasion, the IAEA had no complaints about the operations of any of these sites when Ukrainian experts were in charge of the Chernobyl plant and 4 operational nuclear power plants for more than three decades.

Zelenskyy further said, “It is good that the IAEA representatives have an opportunity to draw objective conclusions about the risks that have arisen at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for the first time in history. Moreover, the risks that have arisen precisely because of the occupiers.”

He added that the risks are caused by the plant’s ongoing shelling, the presence of Russian military troops and weapons there, the harassment of Ukrainian workers, and attempts to place it under the control of the officials from Russia’s Nuclear power company, Rosatom, who are completely incapable of adopting a responsible attitude toward such a facility.

Russia is circulating ‘false informatio’n regarding IAEA mission: Energoatom


In the meantime, Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy operator Energoatom stated that Russians are circulating only information regarding the IAEA mission’s visit that is beneficial to them and lying, manipulating, and misrepresenting the actual situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). Energoatom said in a post released on Telegram, “Russian occupiers are making every effort to prevent the IAEA mission from getting to know the real state of affairs at Zaporizhzhia NPP.”

Apart from this, Energoatom stated that IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi and a few members of his delegation have left the power plant, however, five IAEA mission personnel are still present at the nuclear site.

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