Ukraine: The IAEA chief earlier this week promised to lead a team of inspectors to the Zaporizhzhya plant on the Dnipro River in south-central Ukraine, without giving a specific day for their anticipated arrival.
"We must protect the safety and security of Ukraine and Europe's largest nuclear facility," Rafael Grossi wrote on Twitter.
In a separate tweet, the IAEA said the mission will assess physical damage, assess the work environment for plant employees, and "determine the functionality of safety and security systems." Additionally, it will "immediately execute security measures", which prompts monitoring of nuclear material.
The roof of a fuel depot at the Zaporizhzhya plant was reportedly damaged by a Ukrainian missile attack on Monday, according to Russian-established officials.
According to Russian news agencies, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its forces shot down a Ukrainian drone that was attempting to strike a nuclear power plant. It said the radiation level was normal and there was no significant damage.
Neither report could be independently confirmed by Reuters. The Kremlin called the IAEA mission "essential" and urged world leaders to pressure Ukraine to reduce military tensions at the plant.
To prevent this from becoming a target, the United Nations, the United States, and Ukraine have called for the removal of military hardware and personnel from the nuclear complex. However, the Kremlin once again refused to leave the area.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the IAEA mission should conduct itself in a politically neutral manner. "They must be fair," she commented on the Rossiya 24 television station.
Ukraine's president's chief of staff, Volodymyr Zelensky, said on his Telegram channel late Sunday that Russian forces opened fire on Enerhodar, a town on the banks of the Dnipro River, where the plant is located. He also posted a video of firefighters putting out burning cars.
"They incite and try to blackmail the world," Andrey Yermak said. An increasing number of Enerhodar refugees are arriving in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhya, about 50 kilometers (30 mi) upstream from the plant. 22-year-old Lilia Voulina expressed hope that the mission by the IAEA would result in demilitarization of the surrounding area.
She told Reuters: "I believe they will stop the bombing. Last week, two reactors at the plant were cut off from the electrical grid due to shelling.
Russia opened fire on the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing two people and injuring five. Oleksandr Senkevich posted on Telegram that "the [strike] affected residential homes and educational institutions" and that rescuers were at the scene of the attack.
Local governor Vitaly Kim claimed the city was coming under heavy fire, before later confirming that people were killed. The report could not be immediately confirmed by Reuters. Russian forces shelled military and civilian infrastructure near Bakhmut, Shumi, Yakovlivka, Zaytsevo and Kodema in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military reported early on Monday.
According to Donetsk province governor Pavlo Kirilenko, eight civilians were killed in Russian attacks on Sunday. Moscow refused to commit civilian targets.
To civilianize its southern neighbor, Russia refers to its actions in Ukraine as a "special military operation". It has been dismissed as a fake pretext for a war of conquest by Ukraine and its Western allies, which gained independence in 1991 when the Russian-dominated Soviet Union disintegrated.
The most devastating conflict in Europe since World War II began with the invasion of Ukraine.
Zelensky on Monday accused Russia of trying to prevent European countries from filling their gas storage facilities sufficiently to prepare for the upcoming winter.
During the visit of Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba to Stockholm on Monday, Sweden, which plans to join NATO in response to Russia's aggression, announced about US$50 million in new military aid to Ukraine.
Kuleba requested Sweden to contribute weapons such as howitzers and shells. Every euro, round and shell counts, he declared.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told a conference in Prague that Germany would send more weapons to Ukraine in the coming weeks and help improve Kyiv's artillery and air defense capabilities. He also reiterated Germany's support for Ukraine and several other former Soviet republics to join the European Union.
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