In an interview with RIA Novosti, the organization's director general Rafael Grossi said the IAEA did not name those responsible for the attack on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant because it could not carry out an independent assessment. He mentioned that Moscow and Kiev are criticizing the agency. The IAEA would be able to draw conclusions about the impacts if its auditors and inspectors were able to carry out fully independent assessments, collect and analyze environmental samples and examine debris and other materials.
According to Grossi, this is now impossible.
“We … cannot always examine everything in time. But you understand, and this is not a reproach to anyone, that examining the wreckage after 24 or 30 hours from a forensic examination point of view means that the physical evidence may have been altered or moved,” the head of the agency explained. He emphasized that in the event of a fully independent inspection, he would not refrain from singling out the culprits of the strikes.
Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, in the city of Energodar on the shore of the Kakhovka reservoir. In 2022, during a special military operation, the city and the station came under Russian control.
Since September 1 of the same year, IAEA experts have been working alternately at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.
