U.N. inspectors arrive at Zaporozhye nuclear power plant

 

 

Moon of Alabama

Over night the Ukrainian military, from positions in Vyshetarasovka, Nikopol and Marganets, again shelled the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on the south side of the Kakhovka Dnieper reservoir.

 

This was fallowed by an early morning attempt by Ukrainian forces to land a sabotage group near the village north east of the ZNPP. Some seven boats, two self-motorized barges and some 60 soldiers were involved in the suicidal mission.   

Meanwhile 'western' media continue to quote the ludicrous Ukrainian claims that the Russia is shelling the power plant which is under its troops control since early March:

On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials accused Russia of shelling the path the IAEA inspectors will take to reach the plant to force the group to pass through Crimea instead. They did not provide evidence for their claims, and Russia did not directly respond to the allegation. On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, “Russia is doing everything or even more in order to make the mission … happen, be safe, and accomplish all of its tasks.”

“Every minute the Russian troops stay at the nuclear power plant is a risk of a global radiation disaster,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week.

Ukrainian officials remain worried that the Kremlin’s forces will sanitize the plant ahead of the visit and intimidate workers into not telling the truth about Russian behavior, prompting the IAEA to bless the safety protocols at the plant. That would, in effect, legitimize Russia’s occupying presence, the Ukrainians fear.

“The worst-case scenario is when they come and say it’s best that the station is under Russian control [and] in general, nuclear safety protocols are followed,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Washington Post last week.

The nuclear inspectors were scheduled to spend the night at a hotel in Zaporizhzhia before visiting the plant first thing on Thursday morning, a spokesman for the plant said.

The U.S. military disagrees with the Ukrainian claim that Russia is shelling the ZNPP. On Monday a Pentagon background briefing touched the issue:

Q: [..] White House Strategic Communications Coordinator Kirby said earlier today that the U.S. does not have a way of -- of accounting the number of shells -- artillery shells fired around the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine. I was wondering if you could give clarity on exactly what level of visibility the U.S. has on the military activity around the plant and which side is shelling at any given moment?

SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIAL: Yeah, I -- so what I know for sure is that the -- the Russians are firing from around the plant and, you know, I also know that there are rounds that have impacted near the plant. You know, the way that we're tracking the forces around the nuclear power plant -- it's not like there's a -- a constant -- it's hard to explain, I guess. It's not like there are forces in every square inch of the area around the plant. And so we also know that the Russians have fired in the vicinity of the plant.

And I don't want to say that the Ukrainians haven't fired in that vicinity either because I think there's probably a likelihood that they have, but in good -- in a number of cases, it's returning fire of the Russians who are firing from those locations.

... and in a number of other cases they target the power plant.

 

Update:

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and his team stayed at ZNPP nearly for 4 hours. He said to newsmen that he had got plenty of useful information.

A group of local residents asked him to accept a box with signatures of the local people with an appeal urging the Kiev regime to stop shelling their homes and ZNPP with heavy long-range weapons. The Grossi accepted the appeal signed by 10,500 local residents. 

 

The team went to Energodar. Some IAEA experts will stay at ZNPP.