KYIV -- EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi have arrived on separate visits to Kyiv as Russian missile strikes continued to claim victims among Ukrainian civilians, killing a 2-month old baby boy on February 6 in the Kharkiv region.
"Back in Kyiv for my fourth visit since the start of Russia’s full scale invasion," Borrell wrote on X, formerly Twitter, adding that he will reaffirm during talks with Ukrainian officials the "EU’s unwavering support to Ukraine -- on military side, on the financial side with the new [50 billion euro] Ukraine facility, as well as on the EU reform path."
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Kyiv, which largely depends on Western military and financial support, has said it expects a 4.5 billion-euro ($4.84 billion) disbursement from the EU next month after the 27-member bloc last week approved a four-year, 50 billion-euro ($54 billion) facility for Ukraine.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed on X that the bloc is to start payments next month.
However, a $60 billion U.S. aid package for Ukraine remains blocked in Congress amid opposition from some Republicans who are tying any funds to massive changed in U.S. border policies.
Meanwhile, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in Kyiv where he said he held talks with Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko and other Ukrainian officials ahead of a visit to the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant -- Europe's largest.
The IAEA has voiced concern many times over the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant amid the fighting in the area.
The IAEA has had a monitoring team at the plant since September 2022, but its experts have not been able to inspect every part of the power station, said Grossi, who will visit the plant on February 7.
At times "we weren't granted the access that we were requesting for certain areas of the facility," Grossi said at a press conference in Kyiv.
"On a technical point of view, we have many questions, and we are trying to address these one by one with the administration," Grossi said.
One of the problems is the situation with the nuclear fuel, which has been inside the reactors for years and is reaching the end of its useful life.
Grossi on February 6 also said he was worried about the operational safety of the plant amid personnel cuts after Moscow denied access to employees of Ukraine’s Enerhoatom.
“This huge facility used to have around 12,000 staff. Now, this has been reduced to between 2,000 and 3,000, which is quite a steep reduction in the number of people working there,” Grossi told AP. "I need to see for myself what is the situation, what are the prospects in terms of staffing, medium-term and long-term as well.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he told Grossi during their meeting that the Russian occupation of the plant must end.
"This is the main prerequisite for the restoration of radiation safety for our entire region," Zelenskiy said in his evening video address.
Meanwhile, a Russian missile strike on the settlement of Zolochiv, in Ukraine's eastern region of Kharkiv, killed a 2-month-old baby on February 6.
"At about 2:30 a.m., a three-story hotel was destroyed in Zolochiv after being struck by the occupiers with S-300 missiles," regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said on Telegram. "A 2-month-old boy died. Three women were wounded and were hospitalized."
Houses, civilian infrastructure and cars were also damaged by the Russian strike, he said.
Separately, Russian shelling on February 6 wounded two civilians in the village of Tokarivka, in the southern region of Kherson, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram. On February 5, five people were killed and one was wounded in Kherson by Russian shelling.