A team from the U.N. nuclear chief was on its way on Monday, 29 August, to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as reported by news agency Reuters.
Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a post on Twitter that it is a must to protect the safety and security of Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear facility.
An IAEA team is on its way to the Zaporizhzhia plant and would arrive later this week, said Grossi.
The United Nations and Ukraine have called for a withdrawal of military equipment and personnel from the nuclear power plant to ensure it is not a target
The two sides have for days exchanged accusations of courting disaster with their attacks.
With fears mounting of a nuclear accident in a country still haunted by the Chornobyl disaster, Zaporizhzhia authorities are handing out iodine tablets and teaching residents how to use them in case of a radiation leak.
Russia’s defence ministry reported more Ukrainian shelling at the plant over the weekend.
Nine shells fired by the Ukrainian artillery landed in the plant’s grounds, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said.
«At present, full–time technical personnel are monitoring the technical condition of the nuclear plant and ensuring its operation. The radiation situation in the area of the nuclear power plant remains normal,» he said in a statement.
The Russian state news agency cited authorities as saying they had downed a Ukrainian drone which planned to attack the nuclear–waste storage facility at the plant.
The U.S. State Department said on Sunday that Russia did not want to acknowledge the grave radiological risk at plant and had blocked a draft agreement on nuclear non-proliferation because it mentioned such risk.