IAEA Mission on Its Way to Zaporizhzhia NPP

A mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is on its way to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station (NPP), IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi wrote on his Twitter page.

“The day has come; the IAEA’s Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhia is now on its way. We must protect the safety and security of Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear facility. Proud to lead this mission which will be in Zaporizhzhia NPP later this week,” he wrote.

The New York Times posted that the IAEA mission included experts from Poland and Lithuania, nations seen as friendly by Ukraine, but also others from Serbia and China, which Ukraine views with deep suspicion because of their cozy relations with Moscow. The remaining members are from countries that have mostly stood on the sidelines of the war in Ukraine or that have kept channels open with the Kremlin. They include Albania, France, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, and North Macedonia.

“Neither the United States nor Britain, countries that Russia scorns as unfairly biased because of their strong support for Ukraine, is represented,” the report reads.

Meanwhile, experts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believe that Russia has begun to further implement strategies similar to those used by Iran in an attempt to manipulate and possibly delay an IAEA mission to the plant in the near future.

Manipulation of the nationality of inspectors and attacks on the “fairness” of IAEA inspections are tactics that Iran has long used to obfuscate its obstruction of IAEA inspections.

Bohdan Marusyak