IAEA hopes for deal on demilitarized zone around Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by the end of 2022

Rafael Grossi, International Atomic Energy Agency director general, said on Dec. 2 that he hopes to reach an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on protecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, currently occupied by Moscow troops, by the end of this year.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, he said he is not ruling out another meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future, as well as with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"There is a concrete proposal on securing Zaporizhzhia and important progress has been made," he said.

"The two sides now agree on some basic principles. The first is that of protection: it means accepting that you don't shoot 'on' the plant and 'from' the plant. The second is the recognition that the IAEA is the only possible way forward," Grossi said, as quoted by CNN.

Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine's state nuclear energy operator Energoatom, said on Nov. 27 that the company saw signs Russia was preparing to leave the plant. On the following day, The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the information.

Russian troops have been in control of the plant since early March and have used it as a military base and attacks on Ukraine, according to multiple reports by Ukrainian authorities and local officials.