The International Atomic Energy Agency and Ukraine have agreed to set up a working group on the Chernobyl nuclear power station with the UN agency saying it is preparing to maintain a presence at the site, which was occupied by Russian forces for five weeks, “for as long as the situation requires”.

The agency’s director-general Rafael Grossi announced plans for the working group during a visit to the Chernobyl site on Tuesday – the 36th anniversary of the 1986 disaster.

Mr Grossi then travelled to Kyiv to meet the Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “I assured him that the IAEA will continue to support Ukraine,” Mr Grossi said.

According to an IAEA statement, Mr Zelensky thanked Mr Grossi for visiting Chernobyl and the continued support the IAEA has provided to Ukraine and its nuclear regulator, SNRIU. The IAEA has been in increasingly close communication with the regulator since Russian forces advanced into Ukraine on 24 February.