The UN nuclear watchdog IAEA has confirmed that its chief Rafael Grossi will be traveling to Moscow on Thursday to discuss nuclear safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
“We can confirm that Director General Grossi will be in Moscow tomorrow as part of his ongoing high-level consultations aimed at agreeing and implementing a nuclear safety and security zone around the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) as soon as possible,” the IAEA said in a statement on Wednesday.
The plant, in Russian-occupied territory, has come under repeated shelling attacks prompting concerns about a nuclear disaster. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the attacks.
There are no plans for Grossi to meet Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during the visit, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
Missile strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region have increased in recent weeks. Earlier in the week, the head of the Zaporizhzhia Region Military Administration, Oleksandr Starukh, told a briefing that the energy situation is currently difficult.
All six units at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are out of operation. Starukh said that “they are in partially cold and partially hot shutdown mode.”
