ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Experts at the United Nations nuclear watchdog firm are set to cross a front line in Russia’s war in Ukraine to the endangered Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and embark on one of the most confusing missions in the firm’s history.
The 14-man organization of the International Atomic Energy Agency departed the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early Wednesday morning in a convoy of armored trucks and headed south of a town near the plant, avoiding overnight. The tour of the factory, scheduled for this morning. , will involve crossing a buffer zone of fields dug with artillery shells between the two armies.
The agency’s director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said Wednesday he expected to spend “several days” at the plant while independent nuclear scientists assessed the state of the plant, but local officials aligned with the Russian military warned it would be shorter. day of walk. Grossi said the project had secured security promises from the Russian and Ukrainian military, but noted, “We are going to a war zone. “
Inspectors will have to pass through checkpoints with civilian traffic, a Russian official said, and it was unclear how Moscow’s forces would allow them to temporarily enter Russian-controlled territory.
In brief comments to reporters, Grossi said his team included “very experienced, brilliant and brilliant people” who would give the world an unbiased first look at the dangers posed by the fight against the plant’s six nuclear reactors and radioactive waste storage sites. .
“We’ll have a pretty smart concept of what’s going on,” he said. The visit, he said, “is a project that aims to prevent a nuclear accident. “
The plant, controlled by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian engineers, sits in the middle of an active battlefield, and common bombing has raised fears of a nuclear catastrophe. On Wednesday afternoon, inspectors arrived in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia. approximately 76 miles north of the plant.
As the team traveled south from Kyiv, a Russian official said Moscow would plan for inspectors to identify a permanent presence at the facility. Mikhail Ulyanov, Moscow’s envoy to the IAEA, wrote in a tweet that Russia “welcomes” the agency’s goal, though he did not specify when such a project would begin.
The head of the Russian-designated Zaporizhzhia region, Yevhen Balytskyi, said earlier Wednesday that the scale was expected to last only one day, calling the delegation’s stated purpose for the scale vague.
“They have a day for the operation of the plant,” he said. “If they say there are safe things they want to take into account, we can do it. “
Vladimir Rogov, an official in the administration of the Russian military profession in the area around the factory, said inspectors would be forced to queue with others to pass checkpoints.
Ukraine has insisted that inspectors leave government-controlled territory to give legitimacy to the Russian occupation, meaning inspectors must pass through frontline positions.
“They probably wouldn’t get a special pass,” Rogov said. They were fortunate to come from Russia through the liberated territory safely, temporarily and unhindered. “
UKRAINIAN DRIVING
The inspection project coincided with a Ukrainian push, basically in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions further southwest, to regain territory seized by Russian forces shortly after their invasion on February 24. The Ukrainian military said it attacked Russian command posts and logistics sites on Wednesday. . .
A British intelligence report said Ukraine had “pushed back the front line in some places, exploiting poorly maintained Russian defenses,” while the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks. Military analysts questioned whether Ukraine had the resources to set up and keep pace. a primary counteroffensive.
Russia, whose forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant on the Dnieper River shortly after the invasion, and Ukraine, whose army occupies positions a few kilometers away on the opposite bank, claim to be the IAEA’s mission. Each country asked for inspectors to pass through the territory it controls, and Russian officials ignored calls to withdraw from the center to create a demilitarized zone around it.
The Ukrainian continued to operate the plant in difficult conditions.
In brief remarks to reporters, Grossi did not face expressly demanding situations, but said his team included “very experienced and brilliant people,” which would give the world the first unbiased view of the dangers posed by the fight over the plant’s six nuclear power plants. reactors and radioactive waste storage sites.
“We’ll have a pretty smart concept of what’s going on,” he said. Of the visit, he said, “it is a project that aims to save you from a nuclear accident. “
But it was unclear how much time inspectors would spend at the plant. Vladimir Rogov, an official with Russia’s military leadership in the region, said Wednesday that IAEA equipment queues at frontline checkpoints.
“They will get a special pass,” he said. They were fortunate to come from Russia through the liberated territory safely, temporarily and unhindered. “
The head of the Kremlin-appointed Zaporizhzhia region, Yevhen Balytskyi, said the stopover lasted only one day and called the purpose of the delegation vague.
“They have a day for the operation of the plant,” he said, adding, “If they say certain elements want to be fixed, we can do it. “
Mikhail Ulyanov, Moscow’s envoy to the IAEA, wrote in a tweet that Russia “welcomes” the agency’s intention to build a permanent presence of foreign inspectors at the plant, but that it is unclear when such a project will begin.
Russian troops seized the Chernothroughl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine at the beginning of the war, but then withdrew. remained radioactive since the 1986 accident.
Fighting in and around the Zaporizhzhia plant pulverized the containment of a reactor with shrapnel, entered the construction of the reactor with a large-caliber bullet, blew up the windows of an administrative construction, lit chimneys in a center, destroyed a chimney station, and left holes in the roof of a construction opposite artillery fire.
In what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the closest call to date, the August fighting cut a line of force, cutting off two active nuclear reactors from a force source to run major bombs and cooling equipment. Backup diesel turbines provided power until the line was repaired, but the incident raised what experts call the worst-case scenario: a failure in the cooling formula that can result in the meltdown of one or more reactor cores.
On Tuesday night into Wednesday, as the IAEA team prepared to leave Kyiv, artillery shelling hit the vicinity of the city that houses the plant’s workers and their families, Enerhodar, which means “the gift of energy,” Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian officials said the Russian military attacked the city to anger visiting nuclear scientists and “form an organization of local residents” who would confront the IAEA team about the damage caused by the fight when it arrived for inspection. Across the Dnieper River, in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Ukraine. Nikopol, rocket artillery wounded overnight, the government said.
Grossi said his agency, which only oversees nuclear safety, would make any assessment of the chaotic whirlwind of combat activities around the nuclear power plant.
Ukrainian officials accused the Russian military of entering the plant to prevent a Ukrainian counteroffensive, necessarily threatening nuclear disaster if the Ukrainian army tried to seize the site.
“They are Russians,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council, said Wednesday. “Nuclear terrorism for them is like for us, breakfast. “
BORDER RESTRICTIONS
European Union countries agreed on Wednesday to make it more complicated for Russian citizens to enter the 27-nation bloc, but failed to reach consensus on enforcing a total ban on tourists in reaction to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
At talks in the Czech Republic, EU foreign ministers were desperate to show unity and further punish President Vladimir Putin for starting the war more than six months ago. he has opposed the invasion, he also pays the price.
The plan now is to make it longer and more expensive for Russian citizens to download short-term visas to enter Europe’s passport-free zone, a 26-country domain made up of a maximum of EU members plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland known as the Schengen domain.
This resolution will be made by freezing a 2007 agreement to facilitate between Russia and Europe. The EU has already tightened visa restrictions for Russian officials and businessmen as part of the deal in May.
Speaking after presiding over the assembly in Prague, the Czech capital, EU foreign policy leader Josep Borrell said a growing number of Russians have been arriving in Europe since mid-July, some “to have fun and buy groceries as if there was no war in Ukraine. “
This, he said, “has a security risk” for European countries bordering Russia.
Borrell said he believes the additional delays will result in fewer visas being issued.
Students, press lovers and those who care about their protection in Russia can still get visas. you just have to do to freeze them.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the resolution a “half-measure. “He said visas are only granted to Russians on humanitarian grounds or to help those who obviously oppose Putin’s war.
“The era of peace in Europe is over, as is the era of half-measures. The half-measures are precisely what led to the large-scale invasion,” he said after the meeting. and no measure, I will favor the passage of the measure and continue the discussion until a forged solution is found. “
Calls have multiplied from Poland and the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), but also from Denmark for a broader ban on Russian tourists. The foreign ministers of Estonia and Latvia said they could impose new restrictions on visas, raising national security concerns.
“We will have to immediately increase the value of the Putin regime,” Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told reporters. “The waste of time is paid for with the blood of Ukrainians. “
It is intended to apply uniform regulations in the 26 countries that make up the European area of travel without passports, but Reinsalu said that “it is our national competence, under the precept of national security, in matters of access to our land. “
Information for this article provided by Andrew E. Kramer of the New York Times and by Lorne Cook of the Associated Press.
Gallery: Images of Ukraine, month 7