Direct communications between Ukraine’s national regulator SNRIU and the Chernobyl nuclear power station have been restored, more than a month after such contact was lost when Russian forces controlled the site, International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi said.

Mr Grossi said it was another important step in the process of resuming Ukraine’s regulatory control of the site of the 1986 accident, where various radioactive waste management facilities are now located.

Russian forces seized the Chernobyl site on 24 February and held it for five weeks before withdrawing on 31 March. Ukraine told the IAEA on 10 March that it had lost contact with the site.