U.N. nuclear agency heads to Zaporizhzhia as attacks raise fear of disaster

A “support and assistance mission” from the International Atomic Energy Agency is “on its way” to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, the head of the organization said, as strikes near the facility continued into Monday, according to Ukrainian officials.

Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for the attacks, which have elicited warnings in recent weeks of a possible catastrophe at Europe’s biggest nuclear facility.

The IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhia, known as ISAMZ, will be at the plant “later this week,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi tweeted Monday. He made the announcement after weeks of complex negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations-linked agency to allow experts into the facility, which is operated by Ukrainian workers but occupied by Russian forces.

The agency tweeted an image of inspectors setting out for Ukraine Monday morning.

The experts will aim to assess any physical damage to the plant, evaluate working conditions, perform “urgent safeguards activities” and make sure the facility’s safety and security systems are in good order, the IAEA said.

Russia said Monday it would ensure the security of IAEA inspectors at Zaporizhzhia, and it accused Ukraine of fueling insecurity there.

“We hope that the visit of the IAEA mission dispels numerous speculations about the allegedly unfavorable state of affairs at the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia,” Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, told state-run news agency RIA Novosti. Ulyanov added that Russia “has made a significant contribution” to the planning of the mission.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “security [in the Russian-held areas] will be ensured properly,” adding that the inspectors are expected to reach the plant from the Ukrainian side.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia has held since March, has been repeatedly shelled, sparking fears of a European nuclear disaster. Grossi previously said that “any military action jeopardizing nuclear safety and security must stop.”

The Kremlin reiterated Monday, however, that it is not willing to create a demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia plant. Towns near the plant were shelled late Sunday and into Monday, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ten people were injured Sunday, including four of the plant’s workers, in shelling that hit the city of Enerhodar, where the facility is located and many of its workers live, according to Energoatom, the Ukrainian state nuclear power company.

Shelling on Sunday in Nikopol, across the Dnieper River from the plant, left at least one dead, five injured and more than 2,600 families without electricity, according to the Dnipropetrovsk region’s governor, Valentyn Reznichenko.

Russia also hit two districts northeast of Zaporizhzhia early Monday, causing a fire and damaging at least one residential building, Reznichenko said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in a speech Monday to French business leaders of a potential catastrophe equaling “six times Chernobyl” - the site of a 1986 nuclear disaster - if the plant were hit.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Monday that Ukraine expects the IAEA mission to find that Russia is endangering safety at the plant.

“We expect from the mission a clear statement of facts of violation of all nuclear safety protocols,” Kuleba said during a news conference in Stockholm. He accused Russia of putting Ukraine and the rest of the world at risk of a “nuclear accident.”

Kuleba said the inspection of the plant will be “the hardest in the history of IAEA, given the active combat activities undertaken by the Russian Federation on the ground.”

The Group of Seven’s Non-Proliferation Directors Group welcomed news of the mission and said in a statement that it remains “profoundly concerned by the serious threat the continued control of Ukrainian nuclear facilities by Russian armed forces pose to the safety and security of these facilities.”