The IAEA team arrived in Kyiv: "We must protect"

The IAEA team arrived in Kyiv: "We must protect"

The news was confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

IAEA director Rafael Grossi announced that a team of experts, which he personally leads, arrived in Kyiv on Monday evening, on their way to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, where they are scheduled to conduct an inspection from Wednesday to Saturday, the Guardian reports.

"We must protect the safety of Ukraine and Europe's largest nuclear facility," Grossi wrote on Twitter.

The IAEA announced that Grossi and a team of experts and inspectors embarked on a support and assistance mission to Zaporozhye to help ensure nuclear safety at the Russian-controlled Ukrainian power plant and undertake vital safeguards. The Kremlin said the IAEA mission was necessary, but ruled out leaving the site, the Guardian reports.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine expects the IAEA delegation to "present the facts" regarding the violation of all nuclear safety protocols, adding that Russia "puts not only Ukraine but the whole world at risk of a nuclear accident," according to the British daily.