Ukraine’s state nuclear company said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission had not been allowed into the crisis center of the plant, where Ukraine says Russian troops are stationed, and would find it difficult to make an impartial assessment. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Ukraine was continuing to bomb the plant, raising the risk of a nuclear disaster. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up The site, 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Ukrainian positions across the Dnipro River, was seized by Russian forces shortly after their invasion of Ukraine in late February and has become the focus of concern. It has come under repeated shelling in the past month, with Kyiv and Moscow blamed for the firing. The plant is still operated by Ukrainian personnel and Russia has rejected calls to withdraw its troops. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi and his team spent several hours at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Thursday and intended to return to the frontline on Friday to assess the damage. Speaking after the initial visit, Grossi said the physical integrity of the factory had been breached several times and he was concerned about the situation there. Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said it would be difficult for the IAEA team to conduct an impartial assessment because of Russian interference. “The Russians did not allow the mission to enter the crisis center, which currently houses Russian military personnel, which the IAEA representatives were not supposed to see,” Energoatom said in a statement. “The (Russian) occupiers are lying, distorting the facts and evidence of the bombing of the power plant, as well as the consequences of the damage to the infrastructure,” he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the mission could still play a role despite the difficulties encountered. “Unfortunately, we did not hear the main thing from the IAEA, which is the call to Russia to demilitarize the station,” Zelensky said in a video broadcast on a forum in Italy. In Moscow, Defense Minister Shoigu rejected claims by Kiev and the West that Russia had developed heavy weapons at the plant. He accused Ukraine of “nuclear terrorism” with bombings. Shoigu reiterated Moscow’s insistence that Kyiv would bear responsibility for any escalation at the site. He said Kyiv was “creating a real threat of nuclear destruction” and was using Western-supplied weapons to attack the plant. He also accused the United States and the European Union of “encouraging such reckless actions.” One of the plant’s reactors was forced to shut down on Thursday due to shelling. read more Several towns near the plant came under Russian shelling on Thursday, Zaporizhia regional council mayor Mykola Lukasuk said. Reuters could not independently confirm this. Russia’s ambassador to international institutions in Vienna said two IAEA inspectors will remain at the Zaporizhia plant on a permanent basis, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Friday. The IAEA’s Grossi said on his return to Ukrainian-controlled territory on Thursday that his experts would remain at the facility. He was able to tour the entire facility, seeing key areas such as emergency systems and control rooms. His team should now complete the analysis of the technical aspects. “We’re not going anywhere. The IAEA is now there, it’s in the factory and it’s not moving – it’s going to stay there,” Grossi told reporters after crossing back into Ukrainian-held territory. Those experts, he said, would provide what he called an unbiased, neutral, technically sound assessment of what was happening on the ground. The plant is located on the south bank of a huge reservoir on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in central southern Ukraine. Before the war, it provided more than a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity.
COUNTERATTACK
Ukraine launched an offensive this week to recapture territory in southern Ukraine, mainly below the Dnipro in neighboring Kherson province. Both sides have claimed successes on the battlefield, although details have been scarce so far, with Ukrainian officials giving little information. The spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern command, Natalia Humeniuk, said on Friday that Ukrainian troops destroyed ammunition depots and bridge bridges to prevent the movement of Russian reserves. “Our successes are convincing and we will soon be able to reveal more information,” he said. Moscow denied reports of Ukrainian advances and said its troops had destroyed Ukrainian forces. Reuters could not independently verify these claims. Ukraine’s general staff said on Friday that Russian forces had shelled dozens of cities and towns, including Kharkiv – Ukraine’s second-largest city – in the north and Donetsk in the east. More than seven million people have fled Ukraine, thousands have been killed and cities reduced to rubble in what Kyiv and the West call Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression. Moscow calls its actions a “special military operation” to rid Ukraine of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Reporting by Tom Balmforth in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, and Reuters offices. Written by Stephen Coates and Angus MacSwan. Editing by Nick Macfie Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
