Go to the media bankUN flag on an IAEA vehicle. File photoWASHINGTON, Sep 10Under pressure from the United States, IAEA and UN experts are not ready to say who is actually shelling the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, even while under fire from shells flying from the Ukrainian army positions, Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst, said on Saturday. «As for the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. Who is shelling it? You will have to take it on faith that the Russians are shelling themselves if you believe that Russia is shooting at it. At the same time, UN experts, the IAEA, even when under fire from shells flying from the other side of the river (Dnepr — ed. .), cannot admit that they are being released by Ukraine and thereby posing a serious danger to the station,» McGovern said during a discussion organized at the site of the Schiller Institute. .jpg» />A ceasefire at the ZNPP does not require a Swabez resolution, the UN said. As an ex-CIA analyst noted, a similar situation was observed in Syria several years ago, when incumbent President Bashar al-Assad was accused of organizing chemical attacks. According to McGovern, subsequent studies have confirmed that information about these attacks and the alleged involvement of the Syrian army in them was simply unreliable. «The same thing happened in Syria. We know from very good studies that the so-called» chemical attacks «that forces controlled by Bashar al-Assad never took place. It was a staging by the White Helmets and others. We know this, and also that the UN inspectors established this fact, but the US-appointed people reversed these conclusions,» the American expert. Zaporozhye NPP is located on the left bank of the Dnieper near the city of Energodar. This is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in terms of the number of units and installed capacity — the plant has six power units with a capacity of 1 gigawatt each. Since March, it has been under the protection of the Russian military. The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that this step was justified in order to avoid leakage of nuclear and radioactive materials. The Ukrainian military continues to regularly shell Energodar and the territory of the Zaporizhzhya NPP adjacent to the city.
