Kiev, Aug 26, (dpa/GNA) – International regulators need to make their way to the besieged Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine with all haste, officials in Kiev are urging, as fears remain elevated because of a Russian occupation there.
Energy Minister German Galushchenko, posted overnight on Facebook that both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations, need to send experts to assess the situation.
On Thursday, a local blackout knocked out power supplies to the plant, increasing the risk of an emergency.
Ukraine blames the outage on Russian shelling. When it was cut off from Ukraine’s power supply, it only remained up and running due to an emergency connection. Both reactor blocks had to be shut down in an emergency fashion.
Power has since been restored, but the blocks remain deactivated.
Russian troops have occupied the plant, part of Russia’s six-month-old invasion. Galushchenko wrote on Facebook that they need to evacuate the area.
But Russian forces blame the problems on Ukrainian shelling and say that they have already spun the reactors back up. It is impossible to verify statements from either side.
IAEA director, Rafael Grossi, says he is ready to visit Zaporizhzhya with a team of experts. However, no agreement has been able to be reached on how to get such a team to the plant.
Kiev said on Friday that it still controlled large parts of the Donetsk region, which is on the front lines of the war in the east,
Some 45% of Donetsk was under Ukrainian control, Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television.
Before the Russian invasion on February 24, about two-thirds of the area, with about 1.67 million inhabitants, was under Ukrainian control.
Since the invasion, the neighbouring eastern region of Luhansk has been brought under the control of Russian forces. In addition, many other parts of the country in the south and east have also been captured by Russia.
In a separate diplomatic setback, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church is no longer expected at an inter-religious congress in Kazakhstan next month, according to a church statement to Ria Novosti.
Pope Francis of the Catholic Church is expected to be there. Some have hoped since Russia’s invasion began that if Francis were to be able to talk one on one with Kirill, the two holy men might find a way to negotiate an end to the war. Kirill has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
GNA