The 14 experts from the UN agency arrive in the region after a nine-hour trip and ask kyiv and Moscow for security guarantees to be able to do their job
The mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), made up of 14 experts, arrived this Wednesday afternoon in the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia in a convoy of 20 vehicles and after nine hours of travel with the aim of monitoring the nuclear plant . The director of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, indicated that the work will begin on Thursday, 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 the capital, kyiv, where he was received on Tuesday by the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, 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.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is the largest in Europe. It has a net power of 9,500 megawatts and had more than 10,000 employees before the war. Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began, it was occupied by Russia and has been the scene of fighting in recent weeks.
on the front line
Hours before the arrival of the inspectors, the Ukrainian authorities accused Russia of new bombings in Energodar, the town where the plant is located. Despite the fact that the plant is in the middle of the front line of the war, the experts of the UN nuclear agency have already received security guarantees from both sides to cross it.
Grossi, in any case, said he was aware of the danger of the mission. “These operations are very complex: we are going to a war zone, to an occupied territory,” he stressed about a visit that coincides with an upsurge in fighting in the nearby Kherson region and in the Donbas mining basin (east). Russian troops also caused seven deaths on Wednesday by bombing the cities of Kharkov and Mikolaiv.
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