A reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was shut down due to shelling on Thursday as United Nations inspectors, led by the head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, made their way toward the facility.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s mission to the Russian-occupied nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine has been delayed due to shelling along the route to the facility, according to the agency. However, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said his team still intends to reach the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Thursday despite one of the two operational reactors at the facility being shut down.
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“The Russians are shelling the pre-agreed route of the IAEA mission from Zaporizhzhia to the ZNPP. The UN advance team cannot continue the movement due to security reasons,” Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh wrote in a Telegram post on Thursday.
“Ukraine continues to make efforts to organize safe access of the international IAEA mission to the ZNPP. We demand that the Russian Federation stop the provocations and grant the IAEA unhindered access to the Ukrainian nuclear facility,” Starukh added.
An IAEA spokesman told NBC News Thursday morning that the mission to the facility has been delayed on the Ukrainian side of the war’s front line “for some three hours” but that the head of the nuclear watchdog intends to proceed with the mission as the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant continues to deteriorate.
“Director General Grossi has personally negotiated with Ukrainian military authorities to be able to proceed, and he remains determined that this important mission reaches the ZNPP today,” the spokesman said.
Grossi and his team were photographed emerging from their hotel in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia wearing blue bulletproof vests and carrying helmets as they waited alongside several white U.N. SUVs, determined to make the 34-mile journey to the nuclear plant.
“Having come so far, we are not stopping,” Grossi told the media, according to Reuters.
Ukraine’s nuclear regulator Energoatom said on Telegram that Russian mortar shelling on Thursday led to “emergency protection” being activated at the plant, which continues to be operated by Ukrainian technicians, and the shut down of one of the reactors. Last week, the Zaporizhzhia facility was briefly disconnected from Ukraine’s energy grid after shelling ignited a fire that damaged the last operational power line connecting the facility to the energy grid, an incident that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said could have been catastrophic.
Russia is accusing Ukraine of trying to sabotage the IAEA’s visit to the plant and attempting to seize it from Russian forces.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed Thursday that as many as 60 Ukrainian troops had crossed the Dnieper River, the dividing line between Russian and Ukrainian controlled territory, in boats at 6:00 a.m. local time in an attempt at “provocation,” according to Reuters.
Russian state media also reported on Thursday that residential areas near the Zaporizhzhia plant had come under “massive shelling” from Ukrainian forces overnight.
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Ukrainian officials, such as Starukh, maintain that the recent shellings are being perpetrated by the Russians and are aimed at keeping the IAEA team from reaching the city of Enerhodar, where the nuclear plant is located.
“At this moment, helicopters, field and rocket artillery of the Russian army are shelling the city of Enerhodar,” Yevhen Yevtushenko, the head of the Nikopol district military administration, said on Telegram.
