IAEA Mission to Arrive in Zaporozhye NPP Within Days — Diplomat

It is reported that the mission has already left Vienna

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS

MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. The IAEA mission will arrive in the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant within days, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday.

According to Zapkarova, the mission has already left Vienna. "[The mission] is expected to arrive in the site within days," she said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said earlier that the agency’s mission had been formed and would reach the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant this week. The IAEA inspectors will assess physical damage to the nuclear plant and check its security and safety systems. The Grossi-led mission will also inspect working conditions at the nuclear plant and will yake urgent measures to ensure the plant’s security guarantees.

Located in the city of Energodar, the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is controlled by Russian troops. In recent days, Ukrainian forces delivered several strikes at its territory using unmanned aerial vehicles, heavy artillery and multiple rocket launch systems. It most cases, such attacks are repelled by air defense systems but several shells hit infrastructure facilities and the vicinity of the nuclear waste storage.

IAEA mission heading to Zaporozhye nuclear plant, says Russian envoy

The mission to assess the physical damage to the plant and check the facility's security and safety systems

Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov AP Photo/Florian Schroetter

VIENNA, August 29. /TASS/. A mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency is currently on its way to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP), Mikhail Ulyanov, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, said on Monday.

"The long-awaited IAEA mission led by Director General Mr. Rafael Mariano Grossi is now on its way to the Zaporozhye NPP," he wrote on Twitter.

Grossi said earlier that the IAEA mission to the Zaporozhye plant had been formed and would arrive there this week. The inspectors would assess the physical damage to the plant and check the facility's security and safety systems. The experts led by Grossi will also have to evaluate staff conditions at the plant and take urgent measures to ensure safety there.

The Zaporozhye NPP, located in Energodar, is under the control of Russian troops. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Ukrainian forces have recently carried out several strikes on the territory of the plant, using, among others, drones, heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers. In most cases, the attacks were repelled by air defense systems, but shells have been recorded hitting infrastructure and the area within the vicinity of the nuclear waste storage facility, thereby posing a threat of radiation leakage.

The IAEA earlier stated the necessity to send an urgent mission to the ZNPP due to the safety risks at the nuclear facility. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the August 28 program of the Rossiya 1 TV channel ‘Sunday Evening with Vladimir Soloviev’ that it was Moscow who had been insisting on such a visit and "had been doing everything possible for it to take place."