<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">The chief of the UN atomic watchdog said on Wednesday he was working on a compromise security plan for the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and warned of increased military activity around it.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are persistent fears over the safety of the plant in the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia, where there has been frequent shelling since Russian troops invaded last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During a rare visit to the facility, Europe's largest, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said he was working to find a compromise that would suit both Moscow and Kyiv.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am trying to prepare and propose realistic measures that will be approved by all parties," Grossi told reporters during a press tour organised by Moscow at the plant, which is controlled by Russian forces.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We must avoid catastrophe. I am an optimist and I believe that this is possible," said Grossi, who arrived at the plant in a Russian armoured vehicle, surrounded by soldiers in full combat gear.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he also warned of increasing military activity around the nuclear plant and expressed hope that Russia and Ukraine would agree on safety principles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He added that the visit to the plant was "extremely useful."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The idea is to agree on certain principles, certain commitments, including not to attack the plant," he separately told AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of shelling the plant, increasing fears of a disaster. Russian soldiers stationed at the plant told AFP during Grossi's visit Wednesday that they have been preparing for a possible attack from Kyiv.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Their main task is "to prevent an armed takeover" of the site by Ukrainian "saboteurs", one soldier told reporters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukraine denies any such plans.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United Nations has called for a demilitarised zone around the site.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- 'Anything can happen' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Grossi said his team had previously focused on the possibility of establishing a security zone around the plant.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Now the concept is evolving," he said, with his team focusing on the protection of the plant itself rather than "on territorial aspects which pose certain problems."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the visit Grossi took a guided tour through the huge facility, which had been fortified. He was followed by around 30 journalists. The Moscow-installed director of the plant, Yury Chernichuk, showed Grossi damage the plant sustained during the hostilities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ukrainian nuclear power operator Energoatom earlier in the day distributed footage of a convoy of civilian and military vehicles marked with the letter Z, a symbol emblazoned on Russian military hardware in Ukraine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This was Grossi's second visit to Zaporizhzhia since Russia invaded Ukraine last February.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The agency has had a team of experts inside the plant since September 2022, but Grossi has said the situation "is still precarious".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier this week, Grossi met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said it was not possible to restore safety at the plant with Russia in control.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Renat Karchaa, an advisor to Russia's nuclear power operator Rosenergoatom said Wednesday ahead of the visit that it was unlikely to bring about major breakthroughs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We are far from having any illusions that Grossi's visit will dramatically change anything. For us, this is an ordinary working event," he was cited as saying by Russian news agencies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Complete withdrawal -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The plant needs a reliable electricity supply to ensure essential nuclear safety and security functions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it has suffered repeated electricity outages during the war, causing alarm in the IAEA and the international community.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Russian invasion has caused devastation across swathes of the country, and despite more than 13 months of gruelling battles, Ukraine's top diplomat on Tuesday struck a defiant tone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Russia has to withdraw from every square meter of Ukrainian territory," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a virtual session ahead of the Summit for Democracy, which US President Joe Biden kicked off on Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There should be no misinterpretation of what the word withdrawal implies."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, fighting in recent months has concentrated on the eastern city of Bakhmut, with Kyiv saying it is holding out in the urban hub to exhaust Russian troops.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">General Mark Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference in Washington that Russia has not made "any progress whatsoever" around Bakhmut in the last roughly three weeks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's a slaughter-fest for the Russians," he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The key military objective of Russia's invasion is the complete capture of Donetsk, which it already claimed to have annexed last year, even as fighting there is ongoing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian authorities said Wednesday that Ukrainian forces had used US-supplied HIMARS systems to strike Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The city controlled by Moscow lies around 65 kilometres from the front line and analysts have said it could be a target for a highly-anticipated Ukrainian counter offensive. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>