Ukraine's MFA Rejects Russia's Claims Of Alleged Attack On ZNPP

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) This is stated in an official comment by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, according to Ukrinform.

“We consider these statements as yet another information operation by the occupying state, aimed at diverting the international community's attention from the only real source of nuclear danger at the Zaporizhzhia NPP – the illegal Russian occupation of the station,” the statement emphasizes.

Russian propaganda is once again attempting to promote an absurd narrative: that the state defending its own territory is allegedly attacking its own nuclear facilities, while the state that occupied them is portrayed as their“protector.” The very fact that it is necessary to repeat this thesis already indicates its untenability.

The MFA notes that the Russian Federation has been refusing for years to provide full and unrestricted access to international experts to all areas of the ZNPP. In particular, throughout the entire time of the IAEA mission at the station, international experts were not granted access to the western parts of the turbine halls of the power units. The Russian side also systematically restricted access to other facilities and premises of the station under various pretexts.

Ukraine draws the attention of IAEA member states to an obvious pattern: almost every time before a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, Russia launches a new wave of information manipulation around the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The details, pretexts, and wording may change, but the objective remains the same – to divert the international community's attention from the illegal occupation of the station, the systematic limitation of the IAEA's activities, Russia's violation of international law, and the fact that the Russian military presence at the ZNPP remains the main threat to nuclear safety.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry stresses that the current provocation comes ahead of the June session of the IAEA Board of Governors, during which member states will review the Agency's 2025 Annual Report and the Director General's Report on the Application of Safeguards

For Russia, these documents pose a serious political problem. They will reiterate what Moscow has been unsuccessfully trying to change for the fourth year in a row: the IAEA does not recognize any Russian claims on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant; the IAEA does not recognize any Russian jurisdiction over Ukrainian nuclear facilities located in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine; the Agency continues to assert that the ZNPP is a Ukrainian nuclear facility under illegal Russian occupation.

Read also: Ukrainian forces reject Russian claims of alleged strike on ZNPP

The same applies to other Ukrainian nuclear facilities in temporarily occupied territories, including those in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, such as the Sevastopol research reactor and a subcritical nuclear installation, over which Russia has likewise unsuccessfully sought to assert its unlawful claims.

“We specifically address the member countries of the IAEA Board of Governors. For many years, the international community has responded to Russian nuclear provocations with statements of concern, calls for restraint, and diplomatic formulas. Russia responds to concern with new provocations, to calls for restraint – new violations, to diplomatic signals – further escalation,” the statement says.

Ukraine calls on the 34 members of the IAEA Board of Governors to respond to the actions of the Russian Federation not only in statements but also in decisions.

Today, members of the Board of Governors have an opportunity to demonstrate that such behavior cannot go unpunished.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine urges Board members not to support granting the Russian Federation a seat on the IAEA Board of Governors at their June session.

As reported by Ukrinform, Ukraine's Defense Forces have already refuted Russian claims that Ukraine allegedly struck the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

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