IAEA chief says he wants to meet Putin again as soon as possible

MOSCOW, 18 Oct – PRIME. The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, wants to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin again and do it as soon as possible, he himself told reporters.

“I hope so. And I hope as soon as possible,” he said, answering the question whether he plans to visit Russia and meet with the head of state.

According to him, it is possible to reach an agreement on a security zone around the Zaporozhye NPP before the end of the year. “I believe that this is possible. We had a very good dialogue with President Putin and President Zelensky. It is important that there is an agreement on the basic principles for protecting nuclear power plants. It is possible. We need to continue to work,” he said.

Grossi met with Putin on 11 October. The President of Russia invited him to discuss the situation with the Zaporizhzhya NPP, noting that Moscow is open to resolving all issues.

Zaporozhye NPP is located on the left bank of the Dnieper near the town of Energodar. This is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in terms of the number of units and installed capacity – the plant has six power units with a capacity of 1 gigawatt each. Since March, it has been under the protection of the Russian military. The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that this step was justified in order to avoid leakage of nuclear and radioactive materials. The Ukrainian military continues to regularly shell Enerhodar and the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant adjacent to the city.

In early September, an IAEA mission led by Grossi arrived at the ZNPP. The head of the delegation of “Rosatom” and the staff of the station led the delegation of the IAEA through its territory and showed the sections of the station that had been damaged during the shelling of Ukrainian troops. Two IAEA employees remained at ZNPP on a permanent basis. As a result of the visit of the mission, the IAEA published a report in which it confirmed the fact of shelling of the ZNPP.