IAEA uses nuanced communications approach to keep ZNPP presence, Grossi says
While the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) considers
the occupied Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) a Ukrainian facility, the
agency has to use vague language on the matter in official communications to
maintain its presence on site, IAEA head Rafael Grossi said on June 19.
In an interview with state news agency Ukrinform, Grossi stated that the agency is the only international organization stationed and continuously operating at the occupied ZNPP, "at an infrastructure facility that belongs to Ukraine but is under Russian control."
“It is absolutely clear to the IAEA that this is a Ukrainian facility,” said Grossi.
“But if I start making political statements, it would not make my job easier. It would complicate it, if not make it impossible. So, the situation for the IAEA is unique because we need to have functional working relations with Russia.”
According to Grossi, the agency's stance "must be very balanced" to ensure its observers are not kicked out from the power plant by Russian troops.
“To make it even clearer, Ukrainians like everything to be very straightforward,” he continued.
“[But] If I come in and tell someone, 'You must leave, you are a thief, you are this or that,' it would be very difficult for me to work [there] the next day…, working on nuclear and physical safety and other very technical issues that we need to protect.”
ZNPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. It has been under Russian occupation since March 2022.
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