The Government of Ukraine yesterday recommended that citizens living in areas of the east and south of the country and that are currently the scene of fighting leave their homes before the drop in temperatures arrives for fear of a lack of basic services during the winter. For now, kyiv has only determined evacuations in the Donetsk region as mandatory, but the escalation of tensions has led Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk to propose displacement also from the areas of Kherson, Zaporizhia and Kharkov.
“Those who can should leave gradually,” he told public television, while recommending that no one return to these areas before next spring, coinciding with the predictable arrival of heat. Ukraine is preparing in its eastern part for a winter in which heating, electricity or water may not be guaranteed.
In this climate, the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), made up of fourteen experts, arrived yesterday afternoon in the Zaporizhia region in a convoy of twenty vehicles and after nine hours of travel with the aim of monitoring the nuclear power plant. The director of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, indicated that the work will begin today, when they will begin to make “technical evaluations of the situation” and will speak with the plant’s personnel.
“We are going to spend a few days there,” Grossi announced before heading to Zaporizhia, located more than 500 kilometers from kyiv, where he was received on Tuesday by the President of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, who offered his commitment to the mission.
The head of the IAEA asked for “guarantees” from both parties to be able to carry out their work at the plant, taken over by Russian forces since the beginning of March. The objective, as he explained, is for the delegation to work to stabilize the situation “as far as possible.” “We’re going to try to establish a permanent agency presence from then on,” he stated.
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