Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s interview with Rossiya 24 television channel (April 8, 2024)
❓ Question: How does Russia view the Ukrainian forces’ attacks on the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant and the way Kiev, the collective West and the IAEA responded to the drone strikes against the NPP’s power facilities? We reported that the Foreign Ministry had classified it as none other than nuclear terror.
💬 Maria Zakharova: Good afternoon, I’m now in Beijing with the Russian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Answering your question, I would like to, first of all, draw you attention, as you accurately noted, to the facts, because we have been providing names and qualifications for these facts for more than 18 months now, since the Kiev regime began shelling the Zaporozhskaya NPP grounds that remain under its control. Starting literally with the first reports in 2022, we called it exactly that: nuclear blackmail and nuclear terrorism. Clearly, the international community - if we are talking about those who control the mainstream media - no longer perceives the ongoing developments that we are discussing as sharply as they did before.
So let’s go over issues at hand once again. This is more than a drone attack on a civilian facility that supplies a civilian infrastructure with water, light, and heat, which in itself is an act of terrorism. This is a nuclear facility, and damaging it would impact entire continents. It will not target a particular person of a particular religion, skin colour or tradition in any particular country or nation. No, it will affect the entire planet, precisely in terms of the inability to preserve the peace and security that the leading international organisations, primarily the UN Security Council, should be concerned with.
So, we are talking about the fact that the armed forces of Ukraine, using unmanned aerial vehicles, carried out a series of strikes both against the critical infrastructure of the Zaporozhskaya NPP and its grounds. Power Unit No. 6, the training centre, other infrastructure, and the cargo port area came under attack. Three employees were wounded. The facility’s guards repelled a Ukrainian attack on Power Unit No. 5.
The United States, Britain and their satellites are behind this. Individually and collectively, they are providing the Kiev regime with the drones and shells that these drones are carrying, the money which is used to produce all of that, political support and motivation, and - most importantly - the information cover. That is why the international community remains in the dark about the fact that in the centre of the “enlightened” Europe, which refers to itself as a “garden,” there are indeed genuine parasites (Borrell will not say that about himself, but this is exactly how he should be described) who are posing a threat to the entire planet because they are sponsoring the Kiev regime’s nuclear terrorism.
Above all, the IAEA should deal with this situation, and I will explain why. The fact is that on September 1, 2022, at the request of the IAEA Director General, Russia gave its consent to the presence of the IAEA Secretariat experts at the plant. What was the purpose, the objective and the rationale behind this decision?
The only motive to let them stay at the Zaporozhskaya NPP was the expectation that the presence of experts from this international specialised organisation, its Secretariat, would make it possible to stop the Ukrainian attacks on the plant - a critically important facility - or at least that they would clearly indicate, on behalf of the IAEA, the direction of incoming attacks, the amount of damage caused by the Kiev regime, and, in general, share information with the international community.
That is why we have many times called on Mr Grossi, his colleagues, and everyone present at the station to provide clear descriptions of what they see, document and analyse. You may remember that the statements made by the Foreign Ministry, our Permanent Representative to the UN in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov, and our Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Vasily Nebenzya, indicated that Russia could not consider the statements made by the IAEA to be not only sufficient, but even consistent with the level of its functional responsibilities.
The main complaint - this is not just a complaint lodged by our country, but a cold hard fact - is that for so many months they have been unable to clearly state where the strikes were coming from. What is that but a cover-up and an attempt to divert the attention of the international community from this critical international situation?
We expect the IAEA Director General and his colleagues to provide public, exhaustive, and truthful information that will be the response of the specialised international organisation, which, by the way, is supported with the money of taxpayers around the world, the money of UN member states. We are looking forward to receiving a straightforward and clear response.
It should not be a minor piece of a sentence or a phrase, or some funny or not so funny picture posted on social media. It shouldn’t be in the form of a brief answer by Rafael Grossi to a question from a media member that was running by. It should be a full-fledged, full-length, and exhaustive report by the head of a structural UN unit that deals specifically with this area covering everything that the Kiev regime has done during this entire period.
The world must know its anti-heroes. This is a critically important situation.
Next, regarding who is responsible. Indeed, this is so. The responsibility for everything the Kiev regime is doing lies with its sponsors. The people from Bankovaya Street are sick in every sense of the word. They are drug addicts. The whole world is aware of this, just look at this footage. These videos cover more than one news conference or one interview. This footage is not taken out of context. These are the inarticulate grimaces of a deeply addicted person that are systematically shown to the world. So, yes, they will also be held accountable, but we know perfectly well who is behind all of that.
With regard to the UN Security Council, the systematic work of this body must be deployed. It is not just a gathering of 15 member countries, or gazing at some pictures on the screen. This is a practical systematic daily work that should be devoted to the awful situation around the shelling of the Zaporozhskaya NPP by the terrorist thugs who represent the Kiev regime.
The world must wake up. Countries and governments from all continents must understand what is going on. We will send letters and relevant information through our Permanent Mission to the UN in Vienna and our Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, and use other avenues as well. We will hold ad hoc meetings. We will do this consistently on a daily basis. To reiterate, we will do so on a systematic basis. Indeed, now is the time for the international community to start discussing really important things. Not some imaginary Zelensky formula that was invented to divert everyone’s attention from what really matters. Not some endless manipulations such as the “grain deals” just to let a number of US and British moneybags line their pockets even more. Not some made-up stories around a pseudo-environmental agenda. We need to start with the reality of today. This is where everything comes together. This includes security, the environmental agenda, and the real, rather than imaginary, peace formula. Should something happen, there will be no time for “peace formulas.” This is what the international community should be doing, not just the Russian Federation alone, which has been responsibly and systematically informing its partners using every available channel all along. This is indeed what is called the international community’s peace and security agenda. What, if not this?