Fierce fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces raged near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Friday as several members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continued to inspect the sprawling facility to try to avert a potential disaster. Both sides have traded blame for attacks on the facility, with Ukraine accusing the Russians of holding Zaporizhia hostage and the Kremlin pointing the finger at Kyiv for raising the risk of nuclear disaster by bombing the site. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, who led the long-awaited 14-person frontline mission to the plant on Thursday, said it was “obvious that the plant and the physical integrity of the plant has been violated many times” — but he couldn’t. to assess whether by chance or on purpose. More than a dozen IAEA inspectors toured Europe’s largest nuclear plant, including control rooms, emergency systems and diesel generators.via REUTERSIAEA chief Rafael Grossi (left) said after the visit that the plant’s structural integrity has “violated multiple times”. via REUTERS “I will continue to worry about the plant until we have a situation that is more stable,” he told reporters after leaving the plant. Grossi said IAEA experts toured the entire site, including control rooms, emergency systems and diesel generators, and met with Ukrainian staff at the plant, which has been operating the plant under Russian control since March. Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom claimed the 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. “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. In his late-night video address on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the UN mission for failing to ensure the presence of independent Ukrainian and international journalists during their visit, which he said he had been promised, and for failing to request the complete demilitarization of the website.
UN inspectors continued their assessment of the site on Friday amid shelling, and two members of the team will remain permanently in Zaporizhia. via REUTERS But speaking at an Italian forum on Friday, Zelenskiy sounded a more hopeful note, saying the UN could still play a role despite the difficulties. Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused Ukraine of “nuclear terrorism” and rejected claims by Kiev and the West that Russia had developed heavy weapons at the plant. “We do not have heavy weapons on the grounds of the nuclear plant or in the surrounding areas. I hope the International Atomic Energy Agency mission will be convinced of this,” Shoigu said in remarks released by the defense ministry. Shoigu on Friday doubled down on Moscow’s insistence that Kyiv would bear responsibility for any escalation at the site. Ukraine’s state nuclear company, Energoatom, claimed the IAEA mission had not been allowed into the plant’s crisis center. via REUTERS Russia and Ukraine have swapped responsibility for the bombing of the nuclear plant. AP Shoigu said Kyiv was “creating a real threat of nuclear destruction” and was using Western-supplied weapons to attack the plant. He said Ukraine had fired 120 artillery shells and launched 16 “kamikaze” drone attacks in the past six weeks. “This is nothing less than nuclear terrorism,” Shoigu added, as 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. 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. “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. With Post cables