Amid concerns, UN mission to visit N-plant in Ukraine

Kyiv, August 26

A mission from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant next week after it was temporarily knocked offline and more shelling was reported, Ukrainian officials said on Friday.

Fire damage to a transmission line at Europe’s largest nuclear plant caused a blackout across the region on Thursday and heightened fears of a catastrophe in a country still haunted by the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Lana Zerkal, an adviser to Ukraine’s Energy Minister, said logistical issues were being worked out for the team to come to the plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces and run by Ukrainian workers since the early days of the six-month-old war. Ukraine said Russia was holding the plant hostage. There was no immediate comment from Moscow. — AP