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Biden, Modi Discuss Ukraine War After PM’s Visit, Situation in Bangladesh 

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /
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Biden, Modi Discuss Ukraine War After PM’s Visit, Situation in Bangladesh 

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /

US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday discussed the Russia-Ukraine war following Modi's visit to Ukraine, along with the situation in Bangladesh where protests led to the ousting of former leader Sheikh Hasina earlier this month.

Modi posted online that he discussed the situation in Ukraine with Biden over the phone and "reiterated India's full support for early return of peace and stability."

He also said the two leaders stressed "the need for early restoration of normalcy, and ensuring the safety and security of minorities, especially Hindus, in Bangladesh."

The White House issued a separate statement, saying Biden commended Modi's recent visit to Poland and Ukraine, and that both leaders expressed "support for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in accordance with international law, on the basis of the UN Charter."

Last week, Modi visited Ukraine in the first visit by an Indian prime minister in modern Ukrainian history. It came at a volatile juncture in the war launched by Russia in February 2022. Moscow is making slow gains in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv presses a cross-border incursion.

Modi urged President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to sit down for talks with Russia to end the war and offered to help bring peace.

Modi's Ukraine visit followed a visit he made to Russia in July where he embraced President Vladimir Putin on the same day that a deadly Russian missile strike hit a children's hospital.

That visit angered Ukraine and the US State Department said it raised concerns with India about ties with Russia.

Moscow has been a large weapons supplier to India since the Soviet Union days. Washington in recent years has looked to woo New Delhi to counter China's influence.

Modi said the two leaders also discussed the situation in Bangladesh where about 300 people, many of them university and college students, were killed during protests that began in July with students agitating against quotas in government jobs before the events spiraled into demonstrations to oust long-serving former Prime Minister Hasina.

An interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was sworn in after Hasina fled to India.

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UN Nuclear Chief Visits Russia’s Kursk Atomic Plant Near Front Line 

15 November 2022, Berlin: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi speaks during a press conference at the German Foreign Office. (dpa)
15 November 2022, Berlin: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi speaks during a press conference at the German Foreign Office. (dpa)
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UN Nuclear Chief Visits Russia’s Kursk Atomic Plant Near Front Line 

15 November 2022, Berlin: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi speaks during a press conference at the German Foreign Office. (dpa)
15 November 2022, Berlin: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi speaks during a press conference at the German Foreign Office. (dpa)

UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi arrived on Tuesday at the Kursk nuclear power plant which Moscow says has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces that are just 40 km (25 miles) away after carving out a slice of Russian territory.

The safety of nuclear power plants has repeatedly been endangered over the course of the Ukraine war, which began in February 2022 when Russia sent thousands of troops over the border into Ukraine.

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly blamed each other for drone and artillery attacks on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, though the Aug. 6 incursion by Ukrainian forces into Russia has put the spotlight on the Kursk plant - a major Soviet-era station.

President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Thursday of trying to attack the Kursk plant, which has four Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK-1000 reactors - the same design as those at the Chornobyl nuclear plant which in 1986 became the scene of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster.

Ukraine has yet to respond to the accusations that it attacked the facility.

Grossi, who has repeatedly warned of a nuclear disaster if nuclear plants continue to be attacked, was shown on Russian state television speaking to Russian nuclear officials at the plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief said before his trip that the only way to assess the plant's security and validate the information it was receiving was to visit the site, which is owned by Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom.

"The safety and security of nuclear facilities must, under no circumstances, be endangered," Grossi said. "The safety and security of all nuclear power plants is of central and fundamental concern to the IAEA."

FOREIGN ATTACK

Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers punched through the Russian border on Aug. 6 and then carved out a portion of Russia's western Kursk region, the biggest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War Two.

Russia says Ukraine sent in thousands of troops along with sabotage units, swarms of drones, heavy artillery, dozens of tanks and heavy Western weaponry. Moscow says it will eject the Ukrainian soldiers.

Just 40 km (25 miles) away from the fighting, the Kursk nuclear power station sits next to the town of Kurchatov, named after legendary Russian physicist Igor Kurchatov.

Of Kursk's four Soviet-era reactors, two are shut down, but two - Number 3 and Number 4 - are operational. Reactor Number 4 was disconnected from the grid on Aug. 25 for 59 days of cooling system repairs.

Construction of the Kursk-2 power plant, using essentially new reactors of the VVER-510 type, began in 2018. The two reactors are not operational yet.

The IAEA said on Aug. 22 that it had been informed by Russia that the remains of a drone were found about 100 meters (330 feet) from the Kursk plant's spent fuel nuclear storage facility.

Radiation levels in the area were normal, according to Russian monitoring stations.