Nuclear expert says Ukraine's nuclear plant 'completely out of control' because of war

Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Wednesday that Russia's war in Ukraine has pushed Europe's largest nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia into "grave" danger.

Grossi said the situation with the plant is "completely out of control" because of the shelling around the facility ,and he called for Russia and Ukraine officials to allow experts to visit the complex to prevent a nuclear accident.

"Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated," Grossi said, according to Sky News. "What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous."

Russian forces took control of the plant early in the war, but its Ukrainian staff has remained on duty. Grossi said the energy agency's contacts at the plant have warned about its current condition.

"We are not sure the plant is getting all it needs," Grossi said. "When you put this together, you have a catalog of things that should never be happening in any nuclear facility."

Elsewhere, the Russian Defense Ministry said it destroyed a storage base housing Western weapons at a location in Radekhov in the Lviv region. Russia claimed the weapons destroyed came from Poland.

The British Defense Ministry said a successful Ukrainian attack on a Russian ammunition train in Kherson oblast most likely severed a rail link between Kherson with Crimea, which are occupied by Russia.

"Russian forces are likely to repair the railway line within a few days, although it will remain a vulnerability for Russia forces and their logistical resupply route from Crimeain to Kherson," the ministry said on Twitter.

It added: "Russia has promoted the ferry crossing recently established to replace the damaged Antonovsky Bridge over the Dnipro River in Kherson as for civilian use. However, Russian military forces will almost certainly utilize it for troop movements and logistical resupply."

Meanwhile, a shipment of grain from a Ukrainian port reached Turkey for the first time since the start of the invasion. The delivery on the Sierra Leone-registered ship was the first test of the deal to allow the grain to ship to ease a food crisis around the world.

Turkey and the United Nations, which helped broker the deal, hope to get millions of trapped grain out of Ukrainian port cities like Odesato locations around the world. The grain had been blocked from shipping because of a Russian blockade since the start of the war.