Oct. 24 () –
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Serguei Riabkov announced on Sunday the impossibility of creating a demilitarized zone at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
“Agreements on demilitarization are impossible in principle: we can only protect the station and guarantee its security,” the deputy minister explained to the Russian newspaper Izvestia.
In this sense, Russia categorically rejects the idea of a demilitarized zone proposed by the West, a measure that implies the withdrawal of the Russian military from the station; while she is willing to discuss a safety zone.
“The protection zone is different, its parameters are under discussion. We believe that a certain coordination process, even diplomatic, with the agency (International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA) is not only possible, but necessary” , he declared to the aforementioned newspaper.
The diplomat has indicated that it is “important” to “agree on the essence” of the possible agreement on a security zone, while its form — who would sign it and at what level — would be debated once the content of the covenant.
Riabkov has stressed that Moscow is in “close contact” with the director general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi.
“We are in close contact with Director General Grossi, the work with the IAEA continues, the agency’s specialists are at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant”, he described, before clarifying that this situation is, in his opinion, ” a very concrete manifestation” of his “constructive responsibility”.
