© Reuters. United Nations vehicles carrying members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission depart to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in central Kyiv, Ukraine August 31, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
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KYIV (Reuters) – A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) set off from the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to inspect for damage after shelling nearby sparked fears of a radiation disaster.
Russian forces captured the facility shortly after they launched their invasion of Ukraine on February 24, and it is close to the front lines. Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations of launching shells that have threatened the facility.
A Reuters witness said the IAEA team left Kiev in a convoy of vehicles. The mission is led by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi and comes after extensive negotiations.
“We are now finally moving after six months of strenuous efforts,” Grossi told reporters before the convoy departed, adding that the mission planned to spend “a few days” at the site.
“We have a very important task to do there – to assess the real situations there, to help stabilize the situation as much as we can.”
It was not clear when the IAEA team would reach Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and when it would conduct its inspection. Both sides in the war have reported regular shelling nearby in recent days.
“We are going to a war zone, we are going to occupied territory, and this requires explicit guarantees not only from the Russian Federation, but also from Ukraine. We have been able to ensure that,” Grossi said.
He said the IAEA hoped to set up a permanent mission at the plant, run by Ukrainian technicians. Grossi said one of the mission’s priorities would be to talk to them.
“It’s one of the main things I want to do and I’m going to do it,” he said.
The United States has called for a complete shutdown of the facility and called for a demilitarized zone around it.
The Interfax news agency quoted a Russian-appointed Zaporizhzhia official as saying that two of the plant’s six reactors were operating.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the Russian-installed administration, told Interfax that the IAEA inspectors “must see the work at the station in one day”.
Ukraine accused Russia on Tuesday of shelling a corridor that IAEA officials were supposed to use to reach the plant in an attempt to get them to travel via Russian-annexed Crimea instead. There was no immediate response from Russia.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia attacked with tanks, rockets and artillery along a contact line in the Zaporizhzhia region – part of which, including the city of Zaporizhzhia, remains under Ukrainian control.
“The enemy is regrouping units of the 3rd Army Corps … with the aim of resuming the offensive in the (Zaporizhzhia) direction,” it said.