The position of the IAEA is that this facility is a Ukrainian facility, but I don’t get into comments about military developments,” Grossi said. He also said that the IAEA considers the facility Ukrainian. Grossi said at a news conference that it’s still unclear what the “practical consequences” were of Russia’s decision to seize the plant, but he would be discussing those matters in high-level meetings in Moscow. Grossi will also visit Russia in the coming days. The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, was in Kyiv on Thursday to discuss his calls to establish a nuclear safety zone around the plant “as soon as possible,” the IAEA said in a statement. Intense shelling near the facility this summer sparked concerns of a nuclear accident, prompting the International Atomic Energy Agency to send a team there. The Zaporizhzhia plant has been subject to intense scrutiny since its occupation shortly after Russia’s invasion in late February. CNN has been unable to verify those allegations, but when Putin announced the planned annexation of the four Ukrainian territories on Friday, he said the millions of people living there would be Russian citizens “forever.” Ukraine’s military on Tuesday alleged that plant employees were being subjected to “moral and psychological pressure” and had been forced to obtain Russian passports and sign employment contracts with Russia’s state nuclear energy agency. The plant is the largest nuclear power facility in Europe and has been under Russian control since the beginning of the war, though it is still operated mostly by Ukrainian technicians. The Russian strikes in Zaporizhzhia come just a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree federalizing the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is located about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the city and sits in Russian occupied territory along the Dnipro River.
The other three are Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Kherson in the south. That region is one of four Ukrainian territories Russia is annexing in violation of international law. Though the city is under Ukrainian control, about 75% of the greater Zaporizhzhia region is occupied by Russian forces.
The city of Zaporizhzhia is not far from the front lines of the conflict. More missile strikes were reported after sunrise, prompting local officials to urge residents of the city along the Dnipro River to take shelter.
Authorities are still working to rescue people from the rubble.
One women was killed and seven people, including a 3-year-old girl, were hospitalized. The barrage began with pre-dawn strikes, the first of which hit high-rise residential buildings as people slept, Ukrainian officials said. Russia carried out a deadly salvo of missile attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia early Thursday, just hours after the Kremlin said it was formally seizing a massive nuclear power plant nearby.
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