The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seeks to “prevent nuclear accident‘at her station Zaporozhye (southern Ukraine), which is occupied by Russian troops, said its director general Rafael Grossi, who heads a mission that arrived in the area today.

Asked about plans to create a demilitarized zone around the station, Grossi said “it’s a matter of political will.”

“But my mission — I think it’s very important to be very clear about this — my mission is a technical mission,” he said.

“This is a mission aimed at preventing a nuclear accident and protecting this important nuclear power plant,” Grossi told reporters in the city of Zaporozhye, about 50 kilometers from the plant, Europe’s largest.

The mission of IAEA inspectors under Grossi, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received yesterday in Kyiv, left the capital early this morning. According to the Russian news agency TASS, citing a pro-Russian official, a delegation is expected to arrive at the station tomorrow, Thursday.

“Complex Enterprises”

“We have a very, very important mission to fulfill there, to assess the real situation, to help stabilize the situation as much as possible,” Grossi said this morning in Kyiv. “We’ll spend a few days there.”

He said he received security guarantees from the Russian and Ukrainian authorities.

“These operations are very complex: we are entering the war zone, we are entering the occupied territory,” the official stressed.

Earlier today, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Galushenko told Reuters that the IAEA mission to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is a step towards “liberation from occupation and demilitarization” of the region.

The station, which includes six power units, was seized by Moscow in March but is still operating with Ukrainian personnel under the supervision of Russian soldiers and nuclear engineers.

The area where the station is located, less than ten kilometers from Ukrainian positions on the other side of the Dnieper, has come under repeated shelling over the past month, with accusations exchanged between Kyiv and Moscow.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP, Reuters.}