KYIV (Reuters) – The convoy carrying International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officers due to inspect the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine arrived in the city of the same on Wednesday. name, located some 120 kilometers from the plant, noted a Reuters journalist.
According to this journalist, who accompanies the convoy that left in the morning from Kyiv, the capital, it is probable that the inspectors of the UN agency will spend the night in Zaporijjia before inspecting on Thursday the plant controlled by the Russian army and whose surroundings are regularly bombarded.
The members of the mission, who should spend “a few days” on the site, have “an essential task to accomplish: to assess the situation on the spot and to contribute as much as possible to stabilizing it”, declared to the press the director general of the ‘IAEA, Rafael Grossi, before the departure of the convoy.
He then reaffirmed his desire to reach an agreement to allow the presence of a permanent IAEA mission at the Zaporijjia plant.
“It’s one of my main goals and I will get there,” he said.
Yevgeny Balitsky, head of the local administration of the Zaporizhia region set up by the Russians, told the Russian news agency Interfax that the IAEA inspectors “will have to see the work of the plant in one day”. .
The Zaporijjia power station, the largest nuclear power station in Europe, came under Russian control at the start of its offensive in Ukraine, but its operation is still ensured by Ukrainian technicians.
Kyiv and Moscow have been accusing each other for several weeks of bombing the area around the plant, fueling fears of a nuclear disaster and prompting several countries and international organizations to call for the establishment of a demilitarized zone.
(Report Tom Balmforth, written by Olzhas Auyezov; French version Jean Terzian and Myriam Rivet, edited by Bertrand Boucey and Jean-Stéphane Brosse)