Negotiations on a safe zone agreement around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, controlled by Ukraine, are becoming increasingly difficult due to the involvement of the military in the negotiations, the head of the UN nuclear organization said, Al Jazeera reported.

“I do not think [un acord] it’s impossible, but it’s not an easy negotiation,” said the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, in an interview with Italian public television RAI.

Grossi, who previously said he hoped to agree a deal to protect the nuclear power plant by the end of 2022, said talks with Kiev and Moscow have become more complicated because they involve not only diplomats but also military officers.

“There was … a table [de negocieri] longer and more difficult,” said Grossi, who spoke in Italian.