MELITOPOL, September 4. /TASS/. The security situation at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and in its satellite city of Energodar remains complicated in the run-up to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi’s visit due to intense Ukrainian military activities in the area, the plant’s Communications Director Yevgeniya Yashina told TASS.

"The situation is tense. The intensity of shelling in the area is very high, [although] neither the facility nor the city were hit in the past 24 hours," she said.

On September 3, she told TASS that the ZNPP staff was looking forward to Grossi’s visit and was ready to take him anywhere he would like to go "under the current security conditions."

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi departed for Energodar on Monday evening to visit the ZNPP. He briefed the public about this on his X page, noting that the purpose of the visit was to continue the agency’s assistance and "help prevent a nuclear accident." Grossi also met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Energy Minister German Galushchenko and the country's nuclear regulator Oleg Korikov before visiting the ZNPP.

Earlier, the agency said that he intended to hold high-level talks in Ukraine before assessing the situation at the ZNPP. The IAEA chief’s upcoming visit to the facility will be his fifth since September 2022, when the agency set up its permanent presence at the site.

During a visit to Kurchatov to inspect the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant on August 27, Grossi announced that he would travel to Ukraine before returning to Russia.