AFP

The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, announced Monday morning that he is on his way to the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, which has been hit by strikes in recent weeks that raised fears of a major nuclear accident. "The IAEA mission is on its way to Zaporizhia. We must protect the security of Ukraine and the security of the largest plant in Europe," Grossi wrote in a tweet, adding that the team would arrive at the site "later this week." In a photo attached to the tweet, Grossi is shown with a team of about a dozen wearing hats and jackets bearing the logo of the United Nations agency. Grossi has been demanding for several months that the agency be allowed to visit the site, stressing the "real risk of a nuclear catastrophe." Russian forces took control of the Zaporizhia plant, which includes six of Ukraine's 15 reactors, in early March, shortly after the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, and it is located near the front line in the south of the country. Kyiv and Moscow exchange accusations of bombing the vicinity of the station near the city of Anergodar on the Dnieper River and of endangering the site. On Saturday, the Ukrainian energy company Energoatom warned of the risks of radioactive leaks and fires after recording new strikes. The United Nations has called for the cessation of any military activity in the vicinity of the Zaporizhia station, in which the situation raises the fears of Western countries. Faced with this "dangerous" situation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday urged the UN agency to send a team as soon as possible. And between Thursday and Friday, the plant and its six reactors, each with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, were "completely" disconnected from the national grid due to damage to the power lines, according to the Kyiv authorities, before they were connected again. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to visit a team that passes "through Ukraine" and not Russia, as was previously demanded, according to what the French presidency said in mid-August at the conclusion of telephone conversations between Emmanuel Macron and the Russian President