UN nuclear watchdog says fighting near Ukraine power plant is ‘intensifying’

Fighting continues around Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, even as IAEA director general Rafael Grossi warned that ‘every possible measure and precautions should be taken so that the plant is not attacked’. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has made a second visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine amid an escalation in the fighting around it.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the IAEA director general, was shown around the plant by Russian occupying forces and officials, telling reporters: “It is obvious that military activity is increasing in this whole region, so every possible measure and precautions should be taken so that the plant is not attacked.