International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and some team members left a nuclear power plant occupied by Russian forces in Ukraine on Thursday after spending several hours there, amid reports of increased shelling in the area.
Five inspectors out of about a dozen in Grossi’s mission stayed on at the Zaporizhzhia facility, according to Energoatom, the Ukrainian state-run company that manages the country’s nuclear plants. They are unloading equipment and are expected to stay until Saturday, Energoatom said.
Grossi said his team of monitors collected important information during the visit and he had access to the “key things” he wanted to see, BBC Ukraine reported.
The United States called on Russia to allow the inspectors to stay as long as needed. It comes as increasing attacks in the vicinity of the site have stoked concern over a potential atomic disaster.
Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for continued fighting in the area, with no way to independently verify their claims. They each accused the other of trying to sabotage the mission to Europe’s largest atomic power station, though both publicly said they wanted it to go ahead. Ukraine ensured smooth passage for the mission across territory it controls.
Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian forces were firing on the city of Enerhodar and the sprawling plant, near the mission’s route.
Russia confirmed military action in the area the IAEA team entered on Thursday, claiming its forces had destroyed what it said were two Ukrainian commando groups that had landed in Enerhodar and were seeking to take over the plant. The Defense Ministry didn’t provide evidence and Ukraine denied sending troops there.
Officials from Energoatom also reported on Thursday that a fifth reactor at the plant had to be shut down because of damaged transmission lines.
“The shelling of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by the Russian occupying forces caused the emergency protection and the shut down,” the nuclear utility said in a statement. “The station’s Ukrainian staff is doing everything possible to eliminate damage to its infrastructure.”
Russian forces captured the plant at the beginning of the six-month war, although Ukrainian technicians are inside the facility and keeping the station operating. Shelling in the area has become a near-daily occurrence.
It’s the first time in the IAEA’s 65-year history that monitors crossed an active battlefront in order to carry out an inspection.
