ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine -- A United Nations inspection team finally reached the embattled nuclear power plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine on Thursday, after an artillery bombardment forced operators to shut down one reactor and switch another to emergency power, highlighting the immense risks of combat around a site loaded with radioactive material.

The team of 14 experts with the International Atomic Energy Agency planned to gauge the damage to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from weeks of shelling, its ability to operate safely and other risks in one of the most dangerous and complicated missions in the agency's history. By evening, most of the team had headed back to Ukrainian-held territory, leaving behind five members who officials said would stay into the weekend.

"I worried, I worry and will continue to be worried" about the safety of the plant, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the IAEA, said after returning from the visit. He said he had spent about five hours at the plant, going to key locations there.

"It is obvious that the plant and physical integrity of the plant have been violated several times," he said in brief comments to reporters on a roadside. "By chance or by deliberation? We don't have the elements to assess that. But this cannot continue to happen."

"Whatever you think about this war, this is something that cannot continue to happen," he added.

The IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog group, had pleaded for months for access to the imperiled plant, and as recently as Wednesday, comments by Russian officials cast doubt on their willingness to cooperate.

The agency's team piled into nine armored SUVs on Thursday morning to make the nerve-wracking trip into an active war zone, across the front lines and through multiple checkpoints, in a drive that was forced to detour and lasted several hours longer than planned because of shelling near its intended route.

There was little indication Thursday of what the experts had found. An IAEA spokesperson earlier had said the team intended to present its findings back at its headquarters in Vienna by the end of the week. The agency hopes to establish a permanent presence at the plant.

Although neither Russia nor Ukraine had agreed to a cease-fire in the area, both had said they would guarantee the safety of the mission. As the shelling continued despite those promises, each army accused the other of attacking the route toward the plant and placing the U.N. inspectors in peril.

As the U.N. experts set off on Thursday morning from Ukrainian-held territory toward the dangerous buffer zone separating the two armies, mortar shells struck the plant, the Ukrainian nuclear power company, Energoatom, said. It blamed Russian forces for the attack, which caused equipment failures that forced the reactor shutdown and switch to backup generators. Ukrainian officials said strikes killed civilians Thursday near the plant, but they were unable to ascertain how many.

The extent of damage to the plant, Europe's largest nuclear power station, was not immediately clear, and there were no reports of heightened radiation levels around the facility. But weeks of repeated strikes in and around the plant, which is controlled by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian engineers, have raised fears of a nuclear catastrophe.

The urgency of the threat prompted the U.N. team to make the last-minute decision to proceed to the plant even as the thud of artillery was heard in the parking lot of their hotel, 30 miles away. Before setting off, Grossi, who led the mission, said the Ukrainian military had briefed him on the combat overnight near the planned route.

"We are aware of the current situation; there has been increased military activity," he said.

"But weighing the pros and cons, and having come so far, we are not stopping," he added. "We consider that we have the minimum conditions to move, accepting the risks are very, very high."

The IAEA had said that at Zaporizhzhia its team would check on safety systems, assess damage to the plant and evaluate the working conditions of the staff members, who have endured a harsh occupation. Among the main concerns is that fires or other damage could cause cooling systems to fail and lead to a nuclear meltdown.

The IAEA, which is largely toothless in enforcing its recommendations, can offer an impartial glimpse of goings-on inside a plant the Russians seized six months ago, said Oleksandr Sukhodolya, an energy analyst at the National Institute of Strategic Studies in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. But that could mean little more than reinforcing the obvious, that fighting around the plant has emerged as among the gravest risks of environmental and health hazards of the war.

The agency can also help draw more attention to dangers that have already alarmed governments around the world, which might spur new sanctions against Russia, he said.

The mission will assess whether the so-called seven pillars of civilian nuclear safety -- a list that includes the full functioning of backup systems and the guaranteed physical security of a power plant -- are being met, said Ivan Plachkov, a former Ukrainian minister of energy. But the IAEA has no authority to order a cease-fire or require that Russia withdraw its forces from the station -- the two steps outside experts say could actually solve the problem.

"The IAEA provides only information," Plachkov said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had tough words for the IAEA delegation. While applauding its arrival at the plant, he said independent journalists were kept from covering the visit, allowing the Russians to present a one-sided, "futile tour."

And he said that while Grossi agreed to support Ukrainian demands for the demilitarization of the plant -- including the withdrawal of Russian forces from it -- the IAEA has yet to issue such a call publicly.

Ahead of the visit, Russia's Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian forces unleashed an artillery barrage on the area and sent a group of up to 60 scouts to try to seize the plant on the Dnieper River. It said that the Ukrainian troops arrived in seven speedboats but that Russian forces "took steps to destroy the enemy," using warplanes.

Some of the Ukrainian shells landed 400 yards from the plant's No. 1 reactor, Russian authorities said.

The Russian-installed administration in Enerhodar reported that at least three residents were killed early Thursday by Ukrainian shelling.

Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, accused Russian forces of shelling Enerhodar and a corridor that the IAEA team was set to go through.

Neither side's version of events could immediately be independently verified.

The fighting came as Ukraine endeavored to start the new school year in the middle of a war. Just over half of the country's schools are reopening to in-person classes despite the risks.

In other developments, authorities with the Russian-backed separatist government in the eastern region of Donetsk said 13 emergency responders were killed by Ukrainian shelling in Rubtsi, a village in neighboring Kharkiv province. Much of the fighting in recent weeks and months has centered on the area.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday pledged to keep up France's humanitarian, economic and military support to Ukraine and to bolster European unity as a way to pile pressure on Russia and prevent it from winning it war in that country.

"We cannot let Russia militarily win the war," Macron said in a speech to French ambassadors at the Elysee presidential palace.

He set the goal of enabling Ukraine to either win militarily or be put in a strong position to achieve "a negotiated peace."

"We must get prepared for a long war," Macron said, adding that this would involve tensions escalating over Ukraine's nuclear plants.

Macron said France strongly supported the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency that arrived Thursday to the Zaporizhzhia plant to assess its safety. The French president suggested he would call his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after the IAEA mission concludes.

Macron vowed to "keep talking" to Russia despite criticism from some countries, especially in eastern Europe, which defend a hard-line stance against Moscow. "We must do everything to make a negotiated peace possible" when Russia and Ukraine will be ready to sit for talks, he said.

"We must not let Europe get divided" over the war in Ukraine and its consequences, Macron said, adding that the European Union must not align itself with "warmongers" or allow countries from eastern Europe to act alone in support of Kyiv.

In a nearly two-hour speech meant to outline the goals of the French diplomacy in the upcoming year, Macron praised the views expressed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier this week in Prague as "fully in line" with his own plea for a stronger, more independent and sovereign Europe.

Macron called on Europe to "defend" its freedoms and values and to "fight" for them.

He also urged French diplomats to push back more aggressively against misinformation, fake news and propaganda spread on social media.

Paris needs to use some communication tools to "break the Russian, Chinese or Turkish storytelling" and be able to "say when France is wrongly attacked, to say what France really did," he said.

Russia's foreign minister warned Thursday that any actions seen as endangering a Russian peacekeeping contingent in a separatist region of Moldova would be considered as an attack on Russia itself.

Sergey Lavrov's statement in an address at Russia's top foreign affairs school underlined concerns that Moldova's Transnistria region, which borders Ukraine, could be drawn into the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Russia has stationed peacekeepers there since the 1992 end of a three-month war that left Transnistria outside Moldovan control. Russian forces also guard a large ammunition dump in the region.

In April, tensions in Moldova soared after a series of explosions in Transnistria.

"Everyone should understand that any kind of actions that will raise a threat to the security of our servicemen will be considered in accordance with international law as an attack on the Russian Federation," Lavrov said.

After Lavrov's comments, Moldova's foreign ministry summoned Russia's charge d'affaires for "clarification."

"We remind the Russian side that the legislation of the Republic of Moldova guarantees fundamental human rights and freedoms," the ministry said.

In June, European Union leaders agreed to grant Moldova candidate status in its bid to join the 27-nation bloc.

At the time, European Council President Charles Michel called the decisions to give both Moldova and Ukraine candidate status a "historic moment" that "marks a crucial step on your path towards the EU."

Moldova will need to enact reforms in areas such as tackling corruption, organized crime, strengthening human rights and the rule of law before it can join. The former Soviet republic applied to join the EU just days after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Moldova, which is constitutionally neutral, is not seeking NATO membership.

Information for this article was contributed by Andrew E. Kramer of The New York Times and by Yesica Fisch, Derek Gatopoulos and staff writers of The Associated Press.

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