Putin agrees to send an IAEA mission to Zaporizhia

Baghdad-INA 

The Elysee Palace said today, Friday that the Russian President Vladimir Putin informed his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron of his approval to send a mission of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the Zaporizhia station.

The two presidents agreed to continue talks in the coming days, according to a transcript of the conversation sent to reporters by Macron's office. The operator of Ukraine's nuclear power plants said on Friday it had reason to believe that Moscow planned to disconnect the Zaporizhia nuclear plant from Ukraine's power grid, a complex operation that Kyiv says could cause catastrophe.

According to a Kremlin testimony about the phone conversation, Putin said the bombing of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine that he blamed on Kyiv raised the possibility of a "large-scale catastrophe".

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirmed today, Friday, that the electricity generated at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant belongs to Ukraine, following reports that Russia may transfer electricity produced at the plant to its loyal parts of the country.

"It is clear that the Zaporizhia power plant is Ukrainian and necessary - especially during the winter season - for Ukrainians, and this principle must be fully respected," Guterres said, during his visit at the head of a UN delegation to the Ukrainian port of Odessa.

He also emphasized his call for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
Guterres' comments come after Ukraine-owned Energy Atom, which operates nuclear power plants there, claimed earlier today that Russian forces at the plant "plan to stop the power units operating in the region in the near future and disconnect them from the communication lines that supply the Ukrainian power system.".

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the visit of the International Atomic Energy Agency delegation to the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine via Russia will be the subject of negotiations.