FOG BLOG UKRAINE LOG: UN DELEGATION READY TO ENTER ZAPORIZHZHIA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT AMID SHELLING!

UN inspectors arrive at Ukraine nuclear plant amid fighting ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — A U.N. inspection team entered Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Thursday on a mission to safeguard it against catastrophe, reaching the site amid fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces that prompted the shutdown of one reactor and underscored the urgency of the task.

The 14-member delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in a convoy of SUVs and vans after months of negotiations to enable the experts to pass through the front lines and get inside Europe’s biggest nuclear plant.

“The IAEA is now there at the plant and it’s not moving. It’s going to stay there. We’re going to have a continued presence there at the plant with some of my experts,” IAEA director Rafael Grossi, the mission leader, declared after the group got its first look at conditions inside.

But he added: “I will continue to be worried about the plant until we have a situation which is more stable.”

As the experts made their way through the war zone toward the complex, Russia and Ukraine accused each other of shelling the area and trying to derail the visit. The fighting delayed the team’s progress.

“There were moments when fire was obvious — heavy machine guns, artillery, mortars at two or three times were really very concerning, I would say, for all of us,” Grossi said.