INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed that a team of independent inspectors can travel to the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear
plant via Ukraine, the French presidency said on Friday.The apparent resolution of a dispute over whether inspectors travel to the plant via
Ukraine or Russia came as a senior United States defense official said Ukraine's forces had brought the Russian advance to a halt."You
are seeing a complete and total lack of progress by the Russians on the battlefield," the official said, speaking to reporters on grounds of
anonymity.According to French President Emmanuel Macron's office, Putin had "reconsidered the demand" that the International Atomic Energy
Agency travel through Russia to the site, after the Russian leader himself warned fighting there could bring about a "catastrophe."It
specified that Putin had dropped his demand that the IAEA team travel to the site via Russia, saying it could arrive via Ukraine.Meanwhile,
UN chief Antonio Guterres urged Moscow's forces occupying the Zaporizhzhia plant in south Ukraine not to disconnect the facility from the
statement earlier that Putin and Macron agreed that officials from the UN's nuclear watchdog should carry out inspections "as soon as
possible" to "assess the real situation on the ground."Putin also "stressed that the systematic shelling by the Ukrainian military of the
territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant creates the danger of a large-scale catastrophe," the Kremlin added.The warning came just
a day after Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Guterres, meeting in the east Ukrainian city of Lviv, sounded the alarm over the
intensified fighting, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the United Nations to secure the site.The Turkish leader said: "We
We do not want another Chernobyl," referring to the 1986 nuclear disaster, while Guterres cautioned that any damage to the plant would be
akin to "suicide."'Man-made disaster'During his visit to the southern port of Odessa on Friday, the UN secretary general said: "Obviously,
the electricity from Zaporizhzhia is Ukrainian electricity
remarks came after Ukrainian energy operator Energoatom alleged that Russian troops were planning to "shut off the reactors" at
Zaporizhzhia, which is capable of supplying 4 million homes.On Thursday, Moscow said Kyiv was preparing a "provocation" at the site that
would see Russia "accused of creating a man-made disaster at the plant."Kyiv, however, insisted that Moscow was planning the provocation,
and said Russia's occupying forces had ordered most staff to stay home Friday and drawn down officials from Russia's own state nuclear
agency.The UN chief was visiting Odesa as part of an appeal to make Ukrainian grain available to poor countries struggling with soaring food
significant agreement between Russia and Ukraine since Moscow invaded in February, has so far seen 25 boats carrying some 600,000 tons of
Russian exports that do not contribute to the solution of problems related to ensuring global food security," the Kremlin said.Guterres is
expected to head to Turkey after Odessa to visit the Joint Coordination Center, the body tasked with overseeing the accord.The agreement
between Kyiv and Moscow to clear exit corridors from three Ukrainian ports, including Odessa, has brought some relief to concerns of global
food shortages with the warring countries among the world's leading producers.The deal has held, but brought little respite along the
sprawling front lines in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have edged slowly forward after nearly six months of fighting.The primary
that Russian strikes had killed five people and wounded 10 more in three settlements.Strikes early Friday in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second
largest city, left one person dead and damaged a school and a private business, the head of the region said
Russian strikes around Kharkiv have killed more than a dozen people over the last two days.
