MYKOLAIV, Aug 31(ABC): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday accused Russia of attacking the area near Europe s biggest nuclear plant due to be visited by UN inspectors as intense battles raged in southern Ukraine.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi arrived in Kyiv late Monday together with a 13-strong team and headed for the Zaporizhzhia plant which has been occupied by Russian troops since early March.
“Sadly, Russia is not stopping its provocations precisely in the directions the mission needs to travel to arrive at the plant,” Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation.
“I hope the IAEA team will be able to start its work,” he said, adding that the situation in the plant was “extremely menacing”.
“The occupiers have not abandoned the plant, they are continuing bombardments and are not withdrawing arms and ammunition from the site. They are intimidating our personnel. The risk of a nuclear catastrophe due to Russian actions is not diminishing for even an hour”, he added.
“An immediate and total demilitarisation in Zaporizhzhia is necessary”.
The plant was targeted over the weekend by fresh shelling, Ukraine s nuclear agency Energoatom said, with Moscow and Kyiv trading blame for attacks around the complex of six nuclear reactors located on the banks of the Dnipro River.
Meanwhile, intensive fighting raged across the nearby southern region of Kherson and Donbas, Zelensky said.
Most of the region of Kherson bordering the Black Sea and its provincial capital of the same name were seized by Russian forces at the start of the invasion six months ago.
