IAEA discusses Ukraine nuclear plant protections with Russia

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has met in Moscow with officials from Russia’s state atomic energy company as he tries to get a protection zone set up around a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Russian company Rosatom described Thursday’s talks on safeguarding the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant as “substantive, useful and frank.” The International Atomic Energy Agency’s director general indicated more negotiations were needed. The meeting followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trip to Washington. Meanwhile, the Moscow-installed leader of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region reported that Ukrainian shelling of a hotel in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk killed two people and wounded several others, including a former Russian deputy prime minister.