International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi is travelling to Ukraine this week to establish a continuous presence of nuclear safety and security experts at all the country’s nuclear power facilities, significantly stepping up agency efforts to help prevent a nuclear accident during the military conflict.

Grossi is due to travel to the South Ukraine and Rovno nuclear power stations and to the Chernobyl site to launch the missions consisting of two IAEA experts at each of the facilities.

The IAEA already has a permanent presence of up to four experts at Ukraine’s largest nuclear station, Zaporizhzhia, and a two-member team will also be stationed at the Khmelnitski nuclear station.