Moscow has no heavy artillery systems stationed near the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), situated close to the frontline with Ukraine, Renat Karchaa, an adviser at Russia’s national nuclear operator Rosenergoatom, said on Thursday.
He was responding to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director Mariano Grossi, who said on Sunday that his team on the ground had heard “the sound of more artillery fire taking place close to the ZNPP” the previous day.
The IAEA deployed a monitoring team to Europe’s biggest plant in September.
Karchaa dismissed Grossi’s claim as “ridiculous.” “Not a single long-range artillery system or a multiple rocket launcher is stationed close to the plant. That would be impossible,” Karchaa told TASS news agency. “Russia will never place the nuclear power plant in danger. Unlike Ukraine, we care about nuclear safety.”
