KYIV (AP) — A team from the UN nuclear watchdog on Monday started its journey to the Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant at the heart of fighting in Ukraine, a long-awaited mission to inspect crucial safety systems that the world hopes will help avoid a catastrophe.
Offsetting that rare ray of hope, Ukraine and Russia again accused each other of stoking the conflict by shelling the wider region around the plant, which had already been briefly knocked offline last week.
That incident heightened dread of a nuclear disaster in a country still haunted by the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl, and officials began handing out anti-radiation iodine tablets shortly after.
To avoid such a disaster, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi has for months sought access to the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s biggest, which has been occupied by Russian forces and run by Ukrainian workers since the early days of the six-month-old war.
“The day has come,” Grossi tweeted, adding that the Vienna-based IAEA’s “Support and Assistance Mission ... is now on its way.”
His announcement came as Ukraine accused Russia of new rocket and artillery strikes at or near the plant, intensifying fears that the fighting could cause a massive radiation leak. The facility, which has six reactors, was already temporarily knocked offline under the barrage of shelling last week.
Ukraine has alleged that Russia is essentially holding the plant hostage, storing weapons there and launching attacks from around it, while Moscow accuses Ukraine of recklessly firing on the facility.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of shelling in and around the plant.
“We believe that all countries must raise pressure on the Ukrainian side to force it to stop threatening the European continent by shelling the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and surrounding areas,” he said.
Peskov noted that Russia will ensure security of the IAEA mission “in view of the constant threats linked to the relentless shelling by the Ukrainian side.”
Ukraine’s atomic energy agency has painted an ominous picture of the threat by issuing a map forecasting where radiation could spread from the Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russian forces have controlled since soon after the war began.