Ukraine tries to disrupt IAEA expert commission to Zaporizhzhia NPP

4 сентября 2022

Ukrainian perspective... The shelling of Zaporizhzhia NPP and adjacent territories continued even despite the arrival of IAEA experts. No matter how hard Kiev tried to disrupt the commission, the IAEA mission managed to get to the nuclear plant under cover of Russian troops and examined the plant and its damage.

There is nothing phenomenal about the shelling of the nuclear plant from the Ukrainian side. "The "armed forces" of Ukraine have repeatedly proved that there is no crime that they wouldn’t not commit when ordered to do so. These include torture, execution of prisoners, civilians as human shields, shelling of residential areas - one can go on and on. However, the shelling of the nuclear power plant and the nuclear waste storage facility takes Ukraine to a new level. Ekaterina Tikhomirova explains why the desperate comedian Zelensky started the nuclear blackmail.

They say it's one step from love to hate. Only yesterday Kiev embraced the delegation of the IAEA and demanded to show the whole world the "outrages of Russians" who were shooting themselves at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, and today love is over and the inspectors are declared incompetent cowards. 

To begin with, Kiev was extremely pathetic throughout August: "This Saturday morning in many European cities is possible because the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant miraculously didn't blow up yesterday." Podolyak wrote this, calling for the IAEA to be sent to the plant. 

Mikhail Podolyak, advisor to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office:


I don't like international institutions, especially mediation missions, they look extremely ineffective, they look extremely cowardly, they look extremely unprofessional. I don't think they have ever been ready to work under extreme conditions. They are all ineffective, they all behave very strangely, they all look like, I would say, you don't trust them already on the doorstep.

So, the IAEA mission on September 1 finally managed to get to Zaporizhzhya NPP, after many months of agreements and negotiations, mostly with the Ukrainian side. 14 members of delegation including representatives of Poland and Lithuania (they are the main hope of Kiev, as there is no UK and the USA), and frankly speaking, the head of mission Grossi though not suspected in love to Russia, was very detailed.

The reception of the delegation at Bankova Street was meant to give the distinguished guests time to be treated properly. Zaporizhzhya NPP is the largest one in Europe and generates a billion dollars’ worth of electricity per month. Prices in the market tend to rise, in other words, control over the nuclear power plant is a gold mine, and Kiev is not very good in terms of finances. So for Zelensky the nuclear power plant is a double financial source, on the one hand it brings money in the form of electricity, on the other, it stimulates the entire Western world to contribute to the "victory". 

Ukraine is forcing the international community to intervene, to send peacekeepers, to take control of a nuclear facility, and to give it to Ukraine. In essence, this is a demand for the West to do what Ukraine is unable to do on its own.

Ukraine's reliance on the intervention of a third party - NATO forces. No matter how much the mouthpieces of Ukraine spoke about the victory, there is only treason on all fronts. For six months, the Ukrainian side has opposed an international inspection of the nuclear plant. First let the Russians leave, and then let the IAEA and other organizations come. "Otherwise, the newspaper cited Galushchenko, Minister of Energy of Ukraine "the inspection will arrive and say that everything is fine at the plant and that the Russians are great guys." And this will allegedly be the recognition of the legitimacy of the Russians' presence at the plant. So that was the reason for the shelling, to show that not everything is alright and there is still a threat to peace? It is true the Russians bombard themselves. They are at the nuclear power plant and being next to the radioactive waste they shell themselves with American M777 howitzers of 155 mm caliber, which have just recently arrived in the armament of Kiev. And then Ukraine suddenly decided: let the inspection guys go to the nuclear power plant. 

Igor Nikulin, military expert (Russia): 

Ukraine is pushing for an expansion of the conflict, for some additional forces to intervene in the situation. In general, they say that their dream is to have a NATO contingent in Energodar, right in the heart of Ukraine. 

The roof of special building No. 1, where fresh nuclear fuel and radioactive waste are stored, was damaged. Before that, the reactor cooling system was damaged. And while the delegation was on its way and, incidentally, was detained at the Ukrainian checkpoint, instead of the ceasefire (at least for the sake of the dear international guests) Kiev decided to storm the plant. How? Just like in Hollywood blockbusters. About 60 people were sent in two groups to Energodar: by boat and two barges. 

As stated Zaporozhye authorities, the Ukrainian kamikazes had previously been trained by the British Mi-6. Almost all of them were liquidated, three were captured. 

Alexander Volga, head of the military-civilian administration of Energodar (Ukraine):

They divided into groups of 5-6 people. They entrenched themselves on the territory of the dacha village. Our servicemen quickly blocked them. They were hit by aviation and artillery.

The delegation, despite provocations, visited the plant. They inspected the damage and talked to employees and even residents of the surrounding area, who, incidentally, handed to Grossi a box of signatures from the local population asking him to influence the Ukrainian side to stop shelling the plant, as well as a souvenir - a piece of a Ukrainian shell.

Raphael Grossi, Director General of the IAEA:

We were able to tie a lot of information together in a couple of hours. The key things I needed to see, I saw, and the explanations were very clear.

By the way, Grossi reported that the physical integrity of the nuclear power plant had been violated several times, without specifying exactly who was behind the shelling. But one does not need to be an expert in ballistics to distinguish between the so-called shelling of oneself and strikes from the other side of the Dnieper River to understand on the spot who is shelling, from which side, and with what weapons. What did Kiev from the nuclear experts? Alas, clearly not what this mission does. They expected proverbial solidarity and "the whole world with us". 

There are a lot of questions to Zaporizhzhya NPP, and they appeared long before coming of Russia. More precisely, it's a nuclear experiment with political overtones. 

Zaporizhzhya NPP became, in fact, an American test site and was the first in the world to adapt Westinghouse fuel in reactors of this type. In 2016, Forbes called Westinghouse a threat to nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe. According to journalists, Washington promotes the company's interests in Eastern Europe, creating risks for the safety of nuclear power plants: Westinghouse is only interested in its own profits, not in the interests of its customers. So, there are serious questions to the upgrade of the power plant that may be revealed by the IAEA inspection. 

The IAEA has so far refrained from making loud political statements. So far we see a dry statement of facts, the demilitarization of the nuclear power plant is also not in the competence of the commission. However, the experts will permanently stay at the plant; now the entire world community will know that there are "eyes and ears 24 hours a day" at the nuclear power plant. It is nothing other than a telegram addressed to Kiev, where the desperate comic changed his blackmailing rhetoric: he says that if he controlled a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, there would be heat in European houses.