International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi (center) talks to Ukraine’s energy minister German Galushenko (left) and Energoatom director Petro Kotin after his visit to the nuclear power plant, in Zaporizhia, on September 1, 2022. GENYA SAVILOV / AFP The obstacles accumulated until the last moment, but the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) finally succeeded in access, Thursday, September 1, to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, Ukraine. This visit aimed to make an inventory of the site, occupied by the Russians since March 4. This is the first time in the IAEA’s 65-year history that observers have crossed an active battlefront in order to carry out an inspection. No international or Ukrainian media were allowed to follow the delegation inside the plant, only Russian journalists had access. After “four to five hours” of visit, the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, who leads the delegation, declared to have “seen what he needed to see”, including “the units [de réacteurs]the emergency system and other rooms, control rooms”, while specifying that “the work does not [faisait] what to start”. “The physical integrity of the plant has been violated on several occasions,” he denounced when he returned to territory controlled by kyiv. We have no elements to assess this” but “it is something that cannot continue to happen”, he added. Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers “The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is a dramatic avatar of a global energy crisis” Five inspectors out of the fourteen in the IAEA delegation remained on the site after the departure of Mr. Grossi , announced Energoatom, the Ukrainian public company that manages the country’s nuclear power plants. These experts will stay until “Sunday or Monday to continue the assessment” of the situation at the plant, whose site has been bombed several times over the past month, raising fears of a nuclear disaster. The IAEA also intends to “establish a continuous presence” at the plant beyond this date, underlined Mr. Grossi, without further details. kyiv accuses Moscow of having deployed several hundred soldiers there, positioned artillery pieces and stored ammunition there. Last week, the plant was briefly disconnected from the power grid for the first time in its history, after power lines were damaged. Ukraine expressed its dissatisfaction after the IAEA visit. In his daily evening message, Volodymyr Zelensky reproached him for having concealed the question of the “demilitarization” of the site, which kyiv considers “the key”, and which he had spoken with Mr. Grossi during their meeting on Tuesday. “The main thing that should happen is the demilitarization of the territory of the plant (…). And it is unfortunate that we have not yet heard the appropriate messages from the IAEA,” the president lamented. You have 57.44% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.