U.N. nuclear security officers who’re heading to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia energy plant are going through intense shelling however will proceed to journey to the power, the group’s chief mentioned Thursday.

“There was elevated navy exercise, together with this morning — till very not too long ago, a couple of minutes in the past,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director normal of the U.N.’s Worldwide Atomic Power Company (IAEA), mentioned Thursday morning. However he added defiantly: “Having come thus far, we aren’t stopping. We’re transferring now,” regardless of the actual fact “the dangers are very very excessive.”

Grossi concluded his press assertion by saying: “Want us luck, we’re transferring now … It is essential that the world is aware of what’s taking place right here.”

The IAEA inspectors are anticipated to cross the frontline between Ukrainian-held land and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and attain the nuclear energy, Europe’s largest, afterward Thursday. The U.N. inspectors will proceed to advance, regardless of the actual fact intense shelling has been reported by each Ukraine and Russia round Zaporizhzhia, amid fears the dangers of a nuclear accident are growing.

One of many six energy models on the nuclear energy plant has been shut down as a result of “one other mortar shelling by the Russian occupying forces,” Ukraine’s state vitality firm Energoatom mentioned in a assertion.

Russia’s protection ministry accused Ukraine of trying to retake management of the plant, which Russian forces seized in March, however which continues to be operated by Ukrainian workers. Based on the Russian assertion, “measures have been taken to destroy the enemy, together with with the usage of military aviation.”

Ukrainian native authorities reported assaults in Enerhodar, a city positioned close to the Zaporizhzhia plant, the place a lot of the facility’s workers stay.

“Russians are shelling the pre-agreed route of the IAEA mission from Zaporizhzhia to the ZNPP. The U.N. group can’t proceed the motion as a result of safety causes,” Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of Enerhodar, mentioned on Telegram earlier on Thursday morning.

POLITICO was not capable of independently confirm the battlefield stories.

In his assertion to the press on Thursday, Grossi mentioned his group will “instantly” begin “an evaluation of the safety and the protection state of affairs on the plant, as it’s proper now. We’re going to be liaising, consulting with the workers on the facility.”

The IAEA desires to determine a continued presence on the plant, which Grossi mentioned is essential to “stabilize the state of affairs and to get common, dependable, neutral, impartial updates of what the state of affairs is there.”