(Reuters) – Russian forces want to cause electricity blackouts in southern Ukraine by shelling its Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex, Ukraine’s ambassador to the IAEA nuclear watchdog said on Monday, calling for an international mission to the plant this month.
“We will use all possible channels of diplomacy to bring the IAEA and U.N. closer to conducting this mission,” Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters in Vienna.
“We really need it urgently, as soon as possible, I would say not later than the end of this month,” he added.
Earlier, the United Nations chief called for access to the plant as Kyiv and Moscow traded blame for the shelling in a southern region captured by Russian invaders in March and now targeted by Kyiv for a counter-offensive.
Tsymbaliuk added: “Russian occupants aim to destroy the plant’s infrastructure, cause damage to all transmission lines – and they are used to transport electricity to the Ukrainian grid – and to cause blackouts in the south of Ukraine.”
(Reporting by Matthias Williams and Paul Carrel; Editing by Miranda Murray)
