The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi arrived at the Zaporizhzhia NPP (ZNPP).
This time, Rafael Grossi plans to see how the situation at the ZNPP has changed, to talk with the nuclear engineers who operate it, and also to act as a guarantor of the rotation of members of the Agencyʼs permanent mission, which works at the Zaporizhzhia NPP from September 2022.
This is his second visit to the nuclear power plant. The first was in early September 2022. At that time, the IAEA delegation of 14 people visited the station, after which Agency employees remained at the ZNPP (they change periodically).
- The ZNPP was occupied by the Russian military at the beginning of March 2022 and has been operating under their control since then. Since August, the occupiers have been regularly shelling the ZNPP and Energodar, as a result of which the station was completely disconnected from the power grid several times. Ukraine insists on the withdrawal of the Russian occupiers from the station. Volodymyr Zelensky stated that while Russian soldiers are at the ZNPP, "the world remains on the brink of a radiation disaster."
- The situation at the ZNPP has been in the spotlight since the beginning of August, when the Russian military began shelling the stations. Russia has rejected calls to demilitarize the nuclear plant under the pretext of "protecting it" from provocations, and blames Ukraine for the shelling.