Bombings in the city near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant as the UN watchdog travels to inspect it Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on September 1. (Photo: Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) The shelling in the city of Enerhodar, near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, has been constant since Thursday morning, according to regional officials based in Ukraine and Russia. “Since 5 in the morning [hora local], the constant mortar shelling has not stopped,” Enerhodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov said in a Telegram post, adding that “helicopters” had been flying over the city. “Automatic weapons are heard. Several civilian installations are known to have been hit. There are victims. We are clarifying how many.” The Russian-appointed Enerhodar military-civilian administration also claimed there had been “at least three” civilian casualties and five injuries, including a child. CNN has not been able to independently verify the claims of any Inspectors on the way: The reports come as a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) travels to the nuclear plant for a planned inspection of the facility in southeastern Ukraine, which is held by security forces. in a separate report, the head of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia regional military administration, Oleksandr Starukh, accused Russian forces of “bombing the IAEA mission’s pre-agreed route to the nuclear power plant,” CNN was contacted. with the IAEA to find out if there were obstacles or security problems on his pre-arranged route to the plant, but he has not received a response.Departing from the city of Zaporizhia in the early hours On Thursday morning, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi acknowledged the “inherent risks” his monitoring team would face after leaving the “grey zone” where the last line of Ukrainian defenses ends, but said the mission would persevere.