The fourth visit of IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi to the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhya NPP occupied by the russian federation demonstrated the IAEA's support for Ukraine on nuclear safety, security and guarantees and contributed to the unhindered rotation of the 16th monitoring mission to ZNPP.

“The personal presence of Mr. Grossi, an official of high diplomatic rank, a UN representative, contributed to the unimpeded rotation of IAEA experts as part of a permanent monitoring mission to Zaporizhzhya NPP, which under military occupation is the main source of information on the state of nuclear safety and security at the Ukrainian nuclear facility. However, we must realize that ZNPP is under russian occupation. More than once in recent years, we have heard in weekly statements of the IAEA Director General that the Agency's experts as part of the permanent monitoring mission to ZNPP are not given full access to the safety-important components and equipment of the nuclear power plant. Therefore, during the visit of Rafael Mariano Grossi, in my opinion, the russian occupation administration of ZNPP arranged for him a “show-off” and assured that everything is “under control”, said Oleh Korikov, Head of SNRIU - Chief State Inspector for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine. He also stressed that the occupation administration at ZNPP should provide IAEA experts with immediate and full access to all premises and equipment important for security.

The Head of SNRIU believes that the processes of degradation of nuclear safety and security at ZNPP (in the conditions of military occupation, the absence of legitimate licensed personnel, routine maintenance and repair of equipment and systems, the ongoing “experiments” of the invaders on the alternately heating of power units contrary to the conditions of the license of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine) tend to strengthen and accelerate.

“The military seizure of an object of peaceful use of nuclear energy is a way that leads to a dead end the entire security system that was formed in the world after the Chornobyl and Fukushima accidents, the principles of humanitarian law and the UN system. In my opinion, under the so-called "control" of the russian invaders, which they declare in official notes and ask the IAEA to distribute them to the member countries of the Agency, there is disorder and degradation at all levels: from the control system, which is based not on the principle of responsibility of the operator of nuclear installations, but on the instructions of the commissions from moscow, to the technical condition of the equipment, which is approaching the point of irreversibility and the degradation of which can become avalanche-like. Today, ZNPP has turned from the most powerful electricity producer in Europe into an object of blackmail and mockery of the principles of safety and justification. The degradation of nuclear safety and security at ZNPP is not only a threat to Ukraine and neighboring European countries, it is a warning for those countries that, in their desire to develop their own nuclear programs, continue to rely on the russian federation as the world's largest supplier of nuclear technologies, followed by not only economic expansion, but also systemic dependence”, said Oleh Korikov.

He stressed that the only option to return safety to Zaporizhzhya NPP is complete demilitarization and de-occupation of the plant, returning it under the control of the legitimate and competent operator SE «NNEGC «Energoatom» and under the control of the nuclear and radiation safety regulatory body of Ukraine - the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine.