VIENNA, January 13. /TASS/. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday that it carried out another rotation of its team of experts at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant this week.

"At the ZNPP this week, a new team of three IAEA experts arrived to replace the previous team that had been there for several weeks. It is the fifth IAEA team at the site since the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) was established on September 1 last year," it said in a press statement.

"The ISAMZ team reports that the ZNPP’s last remaining 330 kilovolt (kV) back-up power line is now connected to the plant, after suffering some further disconnections in the last week, highlighting the continued fragile off-site power supply situation for Europe’s largest NPP," the agency said.

According to the agency, the situation "at the ZNPP remains precarious," with its six reactors being in shutdown mode but still needing electricity "for all safety related equipment."

The agency also said that its Director General Rafael Grossi voiced "serious concerns about the pressure that ZNPP staff are facing, with potential consequences for nuclear safety and security."

The Zaporozhye NPP, located in the city of Energodar, has a capacity of 6 GW and is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Russian forces took control of the plant in late February 2022 and ever since, the Ukrainian army has been periodically shelling its territory, as well as Energodar’s residential quarters with the use of drones, heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers.

An IAEA mission, led by its Director General Rafael Grossi, visited the plant in early September 2022. Several agency employees remained at the nuclear plant as observers after the mission departed. In its report issued after the visit, the IAEA called for the immediate establishment of a safety zone around the Zaporozhye plant to prevent a possible "nuclear incident" triggered by hostilities. The IAEA chief is negotiating the project with the Russian and Ukrainian sides. On October 11, he visited St. Petersburg to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Addressing an international conference in Rome on December 2, Grossi said that an agreement on a security zone around the ZNPP was within reach.