The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) needs UN support in organizing a mission to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) occupied by Russian troops, agency's director general Rafael Mariano Grossi has said.

We need UN support, he said at a press conference in Vienna after the opening of the meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors.

According to Grossi, he is constantly in contact on this issue with UN Secretary General António Guterres.

Hopefully I'll be able to give you positive news in the coming days, Grossi added.

At the very opening of the meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, Grossi said that he was actively working on coordinating and organizing the agency's international mission to the Zaporizhia NPP to perform basic work on nuclear, security and safeguards at this site. At the same time, he noted that he was counting on the active support of the Board.

"We are developing methods to send such a mission ... The Zaporizhia NPP site remains under the control of Russian troops. I have repeatedly expressed my serious concern about the extremely tense and difficult conditions in which the plant personnel and its operator work," Grossi said in a report published on the IAEA website on Monday.

According to him, Ukraine is concerned about interruptions in the supply chain of spare parts at the ZNPP, which means that "now at least five of the seven necessary basic elements of nuclear and physical security at the facility have been compromised."

In addition, Grossi, referring to the Ukrainian nuclear regulator, noted that it had lost control over the nuclear material of the plant, which is subject to the Safeguards Agreement between Ukraine and the IAEA.

There was also a loss of data transmission from the Zaporizhia NPP to the IAEA, the head of the agency added.

At the same time, Grossi notes that he took note of the appeal of the Ukrainian government, in which Ukraine calls on him and Guterres to redouble their efforts to find ways to quickly liberate the ZNPP from Russian invaders, return the plant under its full control and restore security, as well as develop effective ways organizing a mission of international experts to ZNPP under the auspices of the IAEA/UN.

As reported, ZNPP has been occupied by the Russian Federation since March 4. On June 3, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that a critical situation had developed at the Zaporizhia NPP to ensure the stable and safe operation of the plant, there were practically no spare parts and consumables.