135. Zelensky shells Grossi’s team at ZNPP

September 1,2022

1. Several Ukrainian commando groups intended to capture ZNPP

On the morning of September 1, the Kiev regime attempted a major provocation to disrupt the arrival of IAEA expert working group at Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant or ZNPP. The mission is headed by Rafael Grossi, the IAEA head, and consists of about a dozen experts who deal with the issues of safeguards and nuclear safety. Nearly half of them are from NATO countries.

At 6.20AM, seven fast-moving motorboats landed on the coast of Kakhovskoye reservoir, 3 km northeast of ZNPP, with two sabotage groups of up to in total 60 soldiers on board. The sabotage groups were detected and blocked in the drop-off area by Russian National Guard (RNG) units guarding the territory of ZNPP. The Ukrainian group was trained in the UK.

A unit of the Russian Armed Forces and helicopters of the army aviation reinforced RNG in order to suppress Ukrainian attempt to enter the plant and destroy Ukrainian saboteurs. The destruction of the Ukrainian sabotage group was promptly completed.

At about 7.00AM, units of the Russian Armed Forces prevented another attempted landing to seize ZNPP.

A few kilometres from the plant near Vodyanoye, an attempt was made to land a tactical assault group by AFU that used two self-propelled barges loaded with tanks on board that sailed from Nikopol, controlled by AFU. These vessels have been hit by Russian troops and sank.

As of 8AM the Kiev regime has blocked the passage of IAEA expert team from its controlled territory to ZNPP near a check point Vasil'evka, as well as the route of its movement to Energodar city located very close to ZNPP. Due to Ukrainian shelling two civilians have been killed and five injured, including one child who later died.

Earlier AFU targeted storage sites of spent and fresh nuclear fuel, cooling and electricity supply system located at ZNPP.

On August 31 Ukrainian sabotage group tried to enter ZNPP but was ambushed by RNG unit, detained and interrogated. Ukrainians have been equipped with three shoulder-fired rocket launchers, several hand grenades, a small reconnaissance drone, a solar panel charger, and printouts of the city map and aerial photos of ZNPP (see photo below).

Despite attempts by the Kiev regime to disrupt the visit of IAEA expert group to ZNPP, the Russian side confirmed its readiness to provide it full security of further operations. And it did so.

Due to these reasons the situation around the nuclear power plant remains tense but still is under full control by the Russian side.

After the IAEA inspectors’ group headed by its Director General Rafael Grossi reached ZNPP the Ukrainian operators at the plant and RNG unit protecting it showed them the fragments of Ukrainian and U.S. ammunition actively used to hit ZNPP.

There are two major reasons behind Zelensky’s attacks on ZNPP, as some Russian experts claimed.

First, Zelensky intended to kill or wound the IAEA DG and his team, and later to blame Moscow for such barbaric act.

Second, Zelensky still plans to capture ZNPP, and being unable to destroy it by heavy weapons bombardment, wishes to destroy it by Ukrainian troops that would appear there, destroy the plant equipment and release enhanced radiation level to the direction of Russia with the help of massive eastward winds.

Rafael Grossi and his team stayed at ZNPP nearly for 4 hours.

He said to newsmen that he had got plenty of useful information.

The group of local residents asked him to accept a box with signatures of the local people with an appeal urging the Kiev regime to stop shelling their homes and ZNPP with heavy long-range weapons.

The IAEA DG accepted the appeal signed by 10,500 local residents (photo on the right).

The team went to Energodar. Some IAEA experts will stay at ZNPP.

2. Statement by the Russian MoD on the IAEA team’s visit to ZNPP

(released on September 1, at 17.50 Moscow time)

The combat operations of the Ukrainian subversive groups with artillery bombardment of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which were unleashed on the day of the visit of the IAEA experts, leave no doubt that the Zelensky regime had prepared this military provocation well in advance.

The fact that the preparation of the operation to seize the Zaporozhye NPP by Ukrainian subversives on the day of the IAEA experts' visit was completed is precisely why Rafael Grossi's visit to the plant was cancelled on August 31, and instead he had an "unscheduled" meeting with Volodimyr.Zelensky.

It is obvious that if the Kiev regime's operation to seize the plant were successful, IAEA head Rafael Grossi and the mission experts would become a "human shield" for the Ukrainian saboteurs to prevent by them any actions of destroying them by units of the Russian Armed Forces.

The role of the IAEA mission in such a case would have been limited to fixing the new status quo: "Zaporozhye NPP has passed under Kiev's full control", with a new wave of loud statements from Washington and European capitals calling on Russia to ensure a "demilitarized zone" around the NPP, where IAEA observers should remain under the protection of the Ukrainian military.

This provocation was thwarted by the effective actions of the Russian Armed Forces and Rosgvardia [Russian National Guard] units. At present, the IAEA mission led by Rafael Grossi arrived at the nuclear power plant and began its planned work with full security ensured by the Russian side. The position of Rafael Grossi and his team, who nevertheless went to the plant despite Kiev's provocations and shelling by the AFU, deserves respect.

In this connection, we completely understand the dead silence of all Western sponsors of Zelensky's regime, which actually confirm their tacit participation in the preparation of today's provocation at the Zaporozhye NPP.

At the same time, the absence of a public reaction to Kiev's actions near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant from the UN Secretary General António Guterres in Vienna causes justified bewilderment.

Such silence not only casts a shadow and questions the objectivity of the UN approach to the situation around Zaporozhye NPP, but also leads to further escalation of the situation there with full impunity of the Kiev regime.

3. Meanwhile the third Ukrainian aggression vs Donbass goes on…

Over the past 24 hours, according to the DPR, AFU fired four hundred and twenty-eight rounds of ammunition from Grad MLRS, 155mm, 152mm and 122mm barrel artillery, as well as 120mm mortars. The shelling took place in the areas of eleven settlements in the Republic. As a result of the shelling, four civilians were killed and twenty were wounded. Twenty-five houses and seven civilian infrastructure facilities were damaged.

Such shelling happens every day…

Written by Vladimir P. Kozin