Putin to allow inspectors to visit nuclear plant
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed that independent inspectors can travel to the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the French presidency said on Friday. The apparent resolution of a dispute over whether inspectors would travel via Ukraine or Russia came as a US defence official said Ukraine's forces had brought the Russian advance to a halt. "You are seeing a complete and total lack of progress by the Russians on the battlefield," the official said, speaking on grounds of anonymity. According to French President Emmanuel Macron's office, Putin had "reconsidered" his demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency travel through Russia to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear site. The UN nuclear watchdog's chief, Rafael Grossi, "welcomed recent statements indicating that both Ukraine and Russia supported the IAEA's aim to send a mission to" the plant. Meanwhile, UN chief Antonio Guterres urged Moscow's forces occupying Zaporizhzhia not to disconnect the facility from the grid and potentially cut supplies to millions of Ukrainians. A flare-up in fighting around the Russian-controlled nuclear power station – with both sides blaming each other for attacks – has raised the spectre of a disaster worse than Chernobyl. The Kremlin said that Putin and Macron agreed that the IAEA should carry out inspections "as soon as possible" to "assess the real situation on the ground". Putin also "stressed that the systematic shelling by the Ukrainian military of the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant creates the danger of a large-scale catastrophe," the Kremlin added. (AFP)