New Delhi, June 7 -- The mines come first, and for the first time in the brief, brittle diplomatic history of truces at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, an international watchdog is watching the men who clear them.

a procedural expansion that the IAEA itself described as unprecedented across the five previous local ceasefires it has brokered since late 2024. In every prior truce, agency monitors were deployed once technicians arrived to begin repairs. None had ever been positioned at the earlier, more dangerous phase of clearing ordnance from the corridor leading to the infrastructure.

The distinction matters because the last time the world assumed demining was proceeding safely at ZNPP, five Russian military sappers were wounded i...