IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks with journalists after he and a part of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission came back from a Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, at a Ukrainian checkpoint in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine September 1, 2022. (Photo: REUTERS/Anna Voitenko)

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection team braved intense shelling to reach the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Thursday. Russia and Ukraine say they fear a Chernobyl-like catastrophe due to shelling they blame on each other.

Russia seized the plant early in the now more than six-month-old conflict, and areas to the south are now the focus of a major Ukrainian counter-offensive. Kyiv accuses Moscow of using the facility to shield its forces, a charge Moscow denies while rejecting calls to withdraw troops.