UN inspectors spent a second day Friday at a Russian-held nuclear plant and
at least two will remain on a permanent basis to ensure safety after the United
Nations atomic agency said the site had been "violated" by the
fighting in Ukraine.
اضافة اعلان
A 14-strong team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (
IAEA) visited
the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Thursday as global
concern grew over its safety in a war raging ever-closer to its six
reactors.
Russian troops seized control of the site -- Europe's biggest atomic
facility -- in early March.
"It is obvious that the plant and physical integrity of the plant has
been violated several times," IAEA head Rafael Grossi said on Thursday as
he and part of his team returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory after a
productive first visit lasting around three hours.
The Argentinian said some of his inspectors would stay at the plant
"until Sunday or Monday" to "dig deeper" into some of the
observations the team had made to draw up a report.
He did not specify how many stayed behind but said the agency would retain a
permanent presence there.
"We have achieved something very important today, and the important
thing is the IAEA is staying here."
Russia's envoy to Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov said six IAEA inspectors had
stayed behind and that two more would remain there "on a permanent
basis".
"Six (IAEA) employees will stay at the plant.. for a few more days and
then they will return to Vienna," he told Russian news agency RIA
Novosti.
"Two people will stay at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on a
permanent basis.
"We welcome this because an international presence can dispel the many
rumours about the state of affairs at the nuclear power plant."
The Kremlin described the inspectors' arrival at the plant as "very
positive".
"In general, we are very positive about the fact that, despite all the
difficulties and problems... the commission arrived and started to work,"
spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
- 'Stop playing
with fire' -
A shelling attack on the area at dawn on Thursday had forced one of the
plant's six reactors to close in what Ukraine's Energoatom nuclear agency said
was "the second time in 10 days" that Russian shelling had forced the
closure of a reactor.
It said the plant's emergency protection system kicked in, shutting reactor
five, with the attack damaging a back-up power supply.
The shelling left only one of the six reactors working.
Red Cross chief Robert Mardini had on Thursday warned the consequences of
hitting the plant could be "catastrophic" saying "the slightest
miscalculation could trigger devastation that we will regret for decades."
"It is high time to stop playing with fire and instead take concrete
measures to protect this facility... from any military operations," he
reporters in Kyiv.
Both sides have traded repeated accusations over who was responsible for the
shelling the area around Energodar, the town which lies next door to the plant
on the south bank of the Dnipro River.
Ukraine has accused Russia of storing ammunition at the plant and deploying
hundreds of soldiers there.
And it also suspects Moscow is intending to divert power from the plant to
the nearby Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops pressed ahead with a counter-offensive in the
nearby region of Kherson to retake areas seized by Russia at the start of the
invasion.
In its morning update, the presidency said explosions could be heard across
Kherson throughout the night and that "heavy fighting" was taking
place in two areas just upriver from Kherson city, the regional capital.
In the eastern Donetsk region, four people were killed and 10 wounded in
various shelling incidents, while another died when a village was hit near
Kharkhiv, Ukraine's second city in the country's north east.
Despite the conflict, now in its seventh month, children started a new
school year on September 1, although in several regions that meant being back
online as all school attendance was cancelled due to the ongoing fighting.
"I'm happy to be back at school but I would be even happier if there
was no war because I miss my teacher and my friends," nine-year-old
Antonina Sidorenko, told AFP as she started her online lessons with the distant
crackle of gunfire in the background.
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