The head of the IAEA announced his intention to visit Ukraine and Russia

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi will visit Ukraine next week, transmit RIA Novosti with reference to the Italian news channel Rainews24. After this visit, he hopes to come to Russia.

“Next week I will be back in Ukraine, I expect to meet with the President [Владимиром] Zelensky, prime minister [Денисом] Shmyhal, Minister of Foreign Affairs [Дмитрием] Kuleboy. Then I hope to go to Russia,” Grossi said.

The last time the head of the IAEA came to Moscow on December 22, 2022. Then Grossi and Director General of the state corporation Roscosmos Alexei Likhachev discussed approaches to creating a nuclear and physical safety protection zone at the Zaporozhye NPP.

Earlier today, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov informed about the absence of a meeting with the head of the IAEA in the schedule of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Previously the President met with Grossi on October 11, 2022 in St. Petersburg.

Russia has controlled the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant since the end of February, since then the plant and the city of Energodar, in which it is located, have been subjected to regular shelling from Ukraine. In early October, after the Zaporozhye region became part of Russia, Putin instructed to take the plant facilities into federal ownership and create the Zaporozhye NPP Federal State Unitary Enterprise to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities.

In mid-October, Grossi announced that he considered it possible to create a safe zone around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant before the end of the year.