Grossi: IAEA team visit to Ukraine nuclear plant not ‘manipulated’

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rejects allegations that its recent visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was “manipulated,” despite the West’s accusations against Russia of seeking to curtail the inspection.

"We are never manipulated…We know what we need to do. And we listen, of course, respectfully, to all this noise. But our ability is to, you know, keep focus on what we need to do," the United Nations nuclear watchdog’s Secretary-General Rafael Grossi said on Friday after returning from a trip to the plant

“We've seen what I requested to see. Everything I requested to see - even as we were going along, when something we thought should be seen, I said, 'I want to go here and there' and we saw everything,” he added.

The IAEA chief also said he planned to issue a report on the safety of the nuclear plant, Europe's largest, early next week.

Grossi said six IAEA staff members remained at Zaporizhzhia, adding that the number would be reduced to two next week and those two would be the IAEA's continuous presence there in the longer term.