VIENNA, January 18. /TASS/. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said his agency had deployed a mission to the Rovno Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Ukraine.

"More IAEA experts now on the ground in Ukraine. Today, I launched the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission in Rivne [Rovno] NPP (ISAMIR). In next few days, we will have teams at all Ukrainian NPPs. They will provide technical assistance & help reduce nuclear dangers during ongoing conflict," Grossi wrote on Twitter late on Tuesday.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on January 13 he would visit Ukraine next week, while his agency was planning to have 11-12 experts at Ukrainian nuclear facilities on a permanent basis. Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the chief executive of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power plant operator, has told TASS that the IAEA was too late with the decision to send its experts to Ukrainian NPPs, since there is evidence and ground to assume that fissile materials have already been illegally taken from these facilities.

The IAEA’s Grossi said on Monday that his agency would expand its presence in Ukraine to prevent "a nuclear accident during the ongoing conflict".