EAccording to the Russian occupying forces, a group of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the southern Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia is already in the area controlled by them. “According to the most recently transmitted information, they passed the Vasylivka checkpoint and we expect them in the city of Enerhodar within the next hour,” Enerhodar occupation administration chief Alexander Volga was quoted as saying by the Russian Interfax news agency on Thursday morning.
Shortly before the planned arrival of the IAEA delegation in Enerhodar, the town near the nuclear power plant was shelled again. Ukrainians and Russians blamed each other.
“The shelling from grenade launchers has been heard since five in the morning,” wrote the escaped Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, on Telegram on Thursday. Several civilian objects were hit, and there were also dead. The agreed route, which the expert commission is to take from the city of Zaporizhia to the nuclear power plant 120 kilometers away, is also under fire, wrote the governor of the region, Olexandr Starukh, on Twitter. In the morning, the authorities also reported that the city was without electricity.
On the other hand, the representative of the Russian occupiers, Vladimir Rogov, reported on Telegram that Enerhodar had been under fire from Ukrainian artillery since the early morning. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that an attempted attack by Ukrainian troops on the nuclear power plant had been repelled. Around 60 men got out of boats on the banks of the Kachowka reservoir about three kilometers away from the plant and tried to take the power plant. Ukrainian stormtroopers were spotted near the city of Enerhodar.
On Thursday morning, the Ukrainian power plant operator Energoatom announced that one of two reactors still in operation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant had been shut down after Russian shelling. The emergency system was activated after mortar fire and reactor number 5 was shut down. Reactor number 6 continues to produce electricity that the nuclear power plant needs for its own operation. In addition, Energoatom announced that the employees were being subjected to repression by the Russian occupiers. Several employees who are not well-disposed towards the Russians have disappeared.
The group of experts, headed by IAEA Secretary General Rafael Grossi, is to check the condition of the plant with its six reactors, the conditions under which the Ukrainian operating team is working and whether all the nuclear material can still be found on site. Russian soldiers are in the nuclear power plant. The plant and its surroundings have come under repeated shelling in recent weeks, with Russians and Ukrainians blaming each other. Internationally, there was great concern about damage to the plant and the release of radioactivity.