DNIPRO, Ukraine — A deal to protect Europe's largest nuclear power plant from a catastrophic accident due to fighting in Ukraine could be "close," the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday, but warned that intensified combat in the area has increased risks to the facility.
In an interview with The Associated Press a day before he was to visit the plant, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he felt it was his duty to ramp up talks aimed at safeguarding the facility. He met Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said he would "most probably" head to Russia soon.
"There is an increased level of combat" in the area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Grossi said. "My teams there report daily about the attacks, the sound of heavy weaponry. This is practically constant."
