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The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Raphael Grossi discussed the creation of a security zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the next missions of the agency in a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal in Paris, reports TASS.
"We have agreed to deploy IAEA nuclear safety and security missions at all nuclear power plants of Ukraine. Work to create a buffer zone around the Zaporizhia NPP continues," Grossi tweeted.
The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, located in the city of Energodar, is the largest in Europe.
It is located in the southern Zaporozhye region, much of which is under the control of Russian forces and which earlier this month was declared part of Russia by Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with three other partially occupied regions.
Russian forces seized the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in March, a month after launching their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The head of the IAEA called on Russia and Ukraine to create a security zone around the Zaporizhia NPP
Excellent meeting w/ #Ukraine PM @Denys_Shmyhal ahead of the conference Solidaires du peuple ukranien.
We agreed to deploy IAEA safety & security missions in all of Ukraine's nuclear power plants.
Work on the establishment of the #Zaporizhzhya NPP protection zone continues.
pic.twitter.com/pXjhWk4cfz
— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) December 12, 2022
The IAEA has repeatedly called for a security zone around the facility.
In early September, the headquarters was visited by an IAEA mission led by Grossi.
After the delegation left the site, agency officials remained there as observers.
The IAEA subsequently published a report calling for the creation of a security zone around the headquarters to prevent emergencies due to hostilities.
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, raising fears of a nuclear disaster more than three decades after the world's worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl, also in Ukraine.
IAEA