Two of the eight specialists that the IAEA remain in the facility, after the director general, Rafael Grossi, announced last Friday the creation of a permanent mission of the body in the area, the TASS agency reported.

Grossi affirmed that, after the visit to the plant on last Thursday, the IAEA mission was able to collect the necessary data to ascertain its state.

“We hope that the two experts who remain at the Zaporozhye plant can be guarantors to its safety,” said Alexander Volga, head of the civil-military administration of the province.

Volga denounced the preparation of a new provocation in Energodar by Kiev’s forces, as happened last Thursday, when a sabotage group of 60 Ukrainian commandos tried to land in a reservoir near the nuclear plant before being eliminated by Russian forces.

Moscow reported continued artillery strikes in recent weeks against Energodar, including the territory where the nuclear power plant is located, although according to Ukraine these are self-aggression actions by Russian forces; however IAEA experts were able to verify that the artillery fire comes from the area under the control of the Ukrainian forces.

Yesterday an artillery shell hit one of the plant’s six blocks, without serious consequences, although the authorities clarified that it was out of service.

pgh/llp/lam/To