Members of International Atomic Energy Agency inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, southeastern Ukraine, on September 1, 2022. On Thursday, the IEAE said it had initiated cease-fire talks in order to conduct repairs at the plant. File Photo by IAEA Press Office/UPI | License Photo

March 27 (UPI) — The United Nations nuclear watchdog said Thursday it has begun discussions for another localized cease-fire for Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to allow for urgently needed repairs.

The plant, Europe’s largest, has been occupied by Russian forces since early in the war, which has repeatedly endangered and damaged the site.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that the situation at the plant is challenging and has warned about the risk the war poses to it.

The IAEA said Tuesday that the ZNPP lost connection to its sole remaining main power line after it was damaged and was now dependent on a single backup line that had only recently been reconnected to the plant.

On Thursday, the IAEA said in a statement that its director, Rafael Grossi, had begun discussions with Russia and Ukraine to secure a cease-fire so the necessary repairs could be conducted.

Although the timing for the necessary repairs remains uncertain, Grossi has confirmed that they have “proposed a cease-fire window to both parties, allowing for safe assessment and restoration of the damaged infrastructure,” it said.

The IAEA has brokered five localized cease-fires for Zaporizhzhia, the latest initiated late last month that allowed for repairs to the sole backup power line, which was reconnected to the nuclear power plant on March 5.

The plant is located in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in southeastern Ukraine. Russian forces seized the utility on March 4, marking the first time a civilian nuclear facility has been occupied.

On the grim anniversary of the plant’s fourth year of Russian occupation, Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy enterprise said the facility “remains one of the most acute risks to European energy and nuclear stability.”

“The seizure of a nuclear facility and its use as a tool for political pressure is a violation of the fundamental rules of the industry,” Energoatom CEO Pavlo Kovtonyuk said in a statement.

“Our task is to protect people and be ready at any moment to resume safe operation of the plant.”