The United Nations nuclear agency chief on weekday stated he was traveling to Kyiv to debate making a security zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia atomic plant after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to take it over.

Kyiv and Moscow have for months accused each other of firing close to the site, triggering fears of a nuclear catastrophe kind of like the 1986 Chornobyl disaster in Soviet Ukraine. “On our way to Kyiv for necessary meetings,” International atomic energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi wrote on Twitter, saying the requirement for a protection zone around the site was “more immediate than ever”. He wrote his tweet with photos showing him boarding a train with the Ukrainian Railways logo. Russian forces have occupied the Zaporizhzhia power plant, Europe’s largest, since March.


Grossi, who conjointly visited the plant last month, has advocated fixing a security perimeter that both sides would commit to not attacking. But a decree by Vladimir Putin on Wednesday expressed that the Russian government would “ensure that the nuclear facilities at the plant… are integrated as federal property”. Ukrainian state nuclear agency Energoatom slammed the decree, calling it “void, absurd and inadequate”.


“Zaporizhzhia NPP will continue to operate in Ukraine, per Ukrainian legislation, within the Ukrainian energy grid,” Energoatom stated on social media. In a separate statement, the IAEA, which has 2 consultants on-site at the plant, aforesaid preparations were underway to restart one of the six reactors “at reduced power to make steam and warmth for the requirements of the plant”. It further it'd take “some time” to finish all preparations. The plant’s last operational reactor was shut off on September 11. The Zaporizhzhia facility is found close to the line within the southern Ukrainian region of the same name, one of four Russian-occupied regions Moscow formally annexed last week.


The annexations followed referendums denounced as a sham by the West and Kyiv. In response to Grossi’s proposal for a security zone, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, said: “We absolutely share this goal. The question is how it's getting to be implemented.” He added: “Rafael Grossi has some practical ideas. they'll be negotiated tomorrow in Kyiv and next week in Russia.”

Ulyanov, speaking on the sidelines of a gathering of the OPEC+ oil-producing nations within the Austrian capital, expressed doubt over whether Grossi would visit Zaporizhzhia once more throughout his trip. “The security scenario is rather volatile,” he said, adding that “constant shelling” would mean another visit by Grossi would take time to prepare