Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that he will meet Rafael Grossi of the IAEA in Kyiv. Grossi is the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This visit will be after he visits the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. This plant has been in Russia’s hands since early in the war.
Rafael Grossi said late on Monday in a post on X that he was on his way to the plant to “to continue our assistance & help prevent a nuclear accident.”
The plant in Ukraine’s southeast is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. It is now in “cold shutdown.” It fell to Russian troops in the first days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Both sides have since frequently accused each other of shelling the plant. However, both Moscow and Kyiv deny the accusations.
Zelenskiy and Dutch PM Dick Schoof visited Zaporizhzhia on Monday. Zaporizhzhia lies across the Dnipro’s wide riverbed to the northeast of the plant. This is where the Ukrainian leader repeated his pleas for the West to supply more long-range weaponry to Kyiv.
Can Ukraine Get Back Zaporizhzhia?
Zelenskiy said that after Grossi visits the plant, he is set to come to Kyiv for a meeting with the Ukrainian leader, according to a video from Zelenskiy’s office on social media.
He also said that at this point of the war, it is not possible for Ukraine to take back control of the plant.
“It is safer for Ukraine to control the Zaporizhzhia plant. But it is so far from the point of view of the battlefield. I do not see such possibilities, and those that probably exist, they are dangerous,” Zelenskiy said.
Russian agencies reported on Monday that a high-voltage power supply line at the plant automatically disconnected. But the plant’s needs are supplied from another line. There was no reason given for the automatic disconnection.
(with inputs from Reuters)
