"In recent weeks we are effectively receiving information that signs have appeared that they are possibly preparing to leave the [nuclear plant]," Kotin said on national television adding that "Firstly, there are a very large number of reports in Russian media that it would be worth vacating the (plant) and maybe worth handing control (of it) to the (International Atomic Energy Agency - IAEA)," he said, referring to the United Nations nuclear watchdog. "One gets the impression they're packing their bags and stealing everything they can."Such a move would be a major battlefield change in the partially-occupied southeastern Zaporizhzhia region where the front line has hardly shifted for months. Repeated shelling around the plant has spurred fears of a nuclear catastrophe. Read also:
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