Any mission of the UN nuclear agency to inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine cannot pass through the capital Kyiv, as it is too dangerous, a Russian diplomat said on Tuesday, quoted by Moscow press agencies, Reuters reports, cited by Agerpres.

“Imagine what it means to pass through Kyiv, it means to reach the NPP through the front line,” Deputy Director of the Department for Nuclear Proliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ihor Vysnevetskyi told reporters, RIA reports. .

“This is a huge risk, considering that the armed forces of Ukraine are not all formed in the same way.”

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday in New York that the U.N. Secretary-General has assessed that the organization has the necessary logistical and security capabilities to support any International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia plant. troops .

According to TASS, Ihor Vysnevetskyi also stated that such a mission does not have the authority to engage in the “demilitarization” of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, as Kyiv demands, since it can only engage in “implementing IAEA guarantees.”