NEW YORK/Kyiv/MOSKAU (dpa-AFX) – In view of ongoing allegations of the delay of an international expert mission to the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia, the UN has contradicted Russian allegations. Contrary to what Moscow has said, the United Nations would have neither prevented nor blocked an operation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “The UN Secretariat has no authority to block or cancel activities of the IAEA,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Monday in New York. The IAEA acts independently. Meanwhile, the UN chief and Russia’s defense minister also spoke on the phone about the power plant.
Dujarric stressed that Ukraine could protect an IAEA mission from Ukrainian controlled territory. Nevertheless, there must be an agreement between Russia and Ukraine, after all the power plant is currently on Russian-controlled territory.
Recently there had been disagreements about how the IAEA experts’ itinerary could look like. Ukraine would not allow a mission solely through Russian-held territory, such as through Crimea or through any other route across the Russian-Ukrainian border.
For weeks, Ukraine and Russia have been accusing each other of shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, thereby causing a nuclear catastrophe.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and UN Secretary-General António Guterres discussed the situation in a phone call. The conditions for safe operation of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant were discussed, the ministry said in Moscow. The United Nations confirmed the call. Details were not given.
More than 40 countries had previously asked Russia to hand over Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to Ukraine. Russia rejects that.
The Russian ministry also said the talks were about a mission to investigate the attack on a camp with Ukrainian prisoners of war. After the death of around 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka prison near Donetsk at the end of July, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov again requested access to independent international experts over the weekend to clarify the case./scb/DP/he