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KYIV, Ukraine, Aug 31 (AP) \u2014 A team of U.N. inspectors made its way toward Ukraine\u2019s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Wednesday on a perilous, long-sought mission to safeguard the site and prevent a catastrophe from the fighting raging around it.<\/p>\n
Underscoring the danger, Kyiv and Moscow again accused each other of shelling the area around the complex overnight. Zaporizhzhia is the biggest nuclear plant in Europe.<\/p>\n
Fighting in early March caused a brief fire at its training complex, and in recent days, the plant was temporarily knocked offline because of damage to a transmission line, heightening fears of a radiation leak or a reactor meltdown. Officials have begun distributing anti-radiation iodine tablets to nearby residents.<\/p>\n
The complex has been occupied by Russian forces but run by Ukrainian engineers since the early days of the 6-month-old war. Ukraine alleges Russia is using the plant as a shield, storing weapons there and launching attacks from around it, while Moscow accuses Ukraine of recklessly firing on the place.<\/p>\n
For months, as the fighting has played out, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has sought access to the plant for an unprecedented wartime mission, and world leaders have demanded that the U.N. watchdog be allowed to inspect it.<\/p>\n
With the convoy of vans and U.N.-marked SUVs finally arriving in the afternoon in Zaporizhzhia city, still some 120 kilometers (70 miles) by road from the plant, IAEA chief and mission leader Rafael Grossi said the \u201creal work\u201d will start on Thursday. He underscored the challenges ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a mission that seeks to prevent a nuclear accident and to preserve this important \u2014 the largest, the biggest \u2014 nuclear power plant in Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said an initial tour will take a few days, after which \u201cwe will have a pretty good idea of what\u2019s going on.\u201d Grossi said he had received \u201cexplicit guarantees\u201d from Russia that the 14 experts would be able to do their work.<\/p>\n
Grossi said he is hoping the IAEA will be able to establish a \u201ccontinued presence\u201d at the plant to safeguard it against an accident.<\/p>\n
The world watched the mission\u2019s progress with anxiety. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell renewed a call to Russia to fully demilitarize the area around the plant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are playing games. They are gambling with the nuclear security,\u201d Borrell said. \u201cWe cannot play war games in the neighborhood of a site like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the inspectors were on their way, Russia-backed local authorities accused Ukrainian forces of repeatedly shelling the plant grounds and city where it is situated, Enerhodar. They said drone strikes hit the plant\u2019s administrative building and training center.<\/p>\n
Yevhen Yevtushenko, head of the administration in the Ukrainian-held city of Nikopol, across the Dnieper River from the plant, charged that the attacks were carried out by the Russians in a bid to make Ukraine look like the culprit.<\/p>\n
Kyiv is seeking international assistance in taking back control of the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think that the mission should be a very important step to return (the plant) to Ukrainian government control by the end of the year,\u201d Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV, Ukraine, Aug 31 (AP) \u2014 A team of U.N. inspectors made its way toward Ukraine\u2019s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Wednesday on a perilous, long-sought mission to safeguard the site and prevent a catastrophe from the fighting raging around it. Underscoring the danger, Kyiv and Moscow again accused each other of shelling the area around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-199336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}