IAEA mission has arrived at Zaporizhzhya NPP. Reuters reports that the IAEA experts may stay at the Zaporizhzhya NPP for less time than initially planned.
Earlier, on the morning of 1 September, the Ukrainian side undertook a series of military actions to disrupt the visit of an IAEA delegation to the nuclear power plant.
At 6:20 a.m. local time, two sabotage groups of the Ukrainian armed forces with a total number of up to 60 people landed on the coast of the Kakhovka reservoir, three kilometres northeast of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. The landing was carried out using seven fast-moving motorboats. The saboteurs then split into groups of five to six men each and attempted to move towards the nuclear power plant through the cottage settlement.
The sabotage groups were detected and blocked in the landing area by Rosgvardiya units guarding the territory of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. A unit of the Russian Armed Forces and helicopters of the army aviation were deployed to reinforce the Rosgvardiya troops in order to suppress an attempt to enter the nuclear power plant and destroy the Ukrainian saboteurs.
As of 2 p.m. local time, both sabotage groups had been neutralised. At least 47 Ukrainian saboteurs killed.
Officials of the civil-military administration of Zaporizhzhya Region said that three Ukrainian saboteurs had been captured, two of them in a serious condition. Rogov, a member of the administration, said that the Ukrainian saboteurs who were planning to seize the Zaporizhzhya NPP had received special training in the UK.
At around 7 a.m. local time, units of the Russian Armed Forces foiled another landing attempt to seize a nuclear power plant.
A few kilometres from the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant near the settlement of Vodyanoye, there was an attempt to land a combat unit of the Ukrainian armed forces in two self-propelled barges that had left Nikopol.
Both barges were sunk. The number of surviving AFU servicemen is unknown.
Starting from 8 a.m. local time, the Kiev regime intensified shelling of the territory of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also launched artillery strikes at the expected meeting place of the IAEA mission with Russian specialists near the village of Vasylivka, as well as on their route to the city of Energodar.
Four shells exploded at a distance of 400 metres from the first power unit of the Zaporizhzhya NPP.
Despite all attempts by Kiev to thwart the visit, the IAEA mission leadership has shown determination to visit the nuclear power plant. A large group of journalists accompanies the IAEA experts. Security at the nuclear power plant is ensured by the Russian military police
