Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Energy problems hit Ukraine and Europe as much of the Russian-occupied region that is home to a largely crippled nuclear power plant was temporarily reported under blackout Sunday.
Only one of the six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia facility was connected to the power grid, and Russia’s main pipeline carrying natural gas to Germany remained shut.
Clashes in Ukraine and related disputes over gas pipelines are behind worsening electricity and natural gas shortfalls as Russia’s war in Ukraine, which began on February 24, continues into its seventh month.
Both topics will take center stage this week. Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear agency are scheduled to report to the Security Council on Tuesday about their inspection and safeguard visit to the Zaporizhzhia power plant. European Union energy ministers were due to hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss the bloc’s electricity market, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said is “no longer working “.
Much of the Zaporizhzhia region, including the key city of Melitopol, lost power on Sunday.
But electricity was gradually being restored, said Vladimir Rogov, the head of the local administration set up by Russia in Enerhodar, the town where the nuclear power plant is located. In the southwest, power was also cut in several parts of the port city of Kherson, according to Russian news agency Tass. Rogov blamed the outages at both locations on damage to high-voltage power lines.
Although Rogov said no new shelling of the area around the six-reactor plant in Zaporizhzhia was reported on Sunday, the effects of earlier strikes lingered.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that the plant was disconnected from its last main external power line and one reactor was shut down due to grid restrictions. Another reactor was still operating and producing electricity for cooling and other essential safety functions at the site, as well as externally for homes, factories and others through a backup power line, the IAEA said.
Russian forces have been maintaining the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, since early March, and its Ukrainian personnel continue to operate it.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said he will report to the UN Security Council on Tuesday about a mission he led to the plant last week. The 14-member delegation battled gunfire and artillery blasts to reach the plant last Thursday after months of negotiations to allow passage through the front lines.
Without placing blame on either side, Grossi said his biggest concerns are the physical integrity of the plant, its power source and the status of staff.
Europe’s energy landscape was darkened by the war in Ukraine.
Just hours before Russian energy company Gazprom was due to resume natural gas deliveries to Germany via a major pipeline after a three-day shutdown, it announced on Friday that it would not be able to do so until fix the oil leaks in the turbines.
This is the latest development in a saga in which Gazprom has advanced technical problems as the reason for reduced gas flows through Nord Stream 1, explanations that German officials have dismissed as cover for a power play politician. Dismissing the latest justification for Gazprom’s shutdown, Germany’s Siemens Energy, which made turbines used by the pipeline, said the turbine leaks can be fixed while gas continues to flow through the pipeline.
Von der Leyen blamed Europe’s energy crisis on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. Ahead of a meeting of EU energy ministers next Friday, he said electricity and natural gas prices should be decoupled and supported a price cap on Russian pipeline gas exported to europe
Natural gas is one of the main fuels used in electricity generation, and is an important source of income for Russia, along with oil exports.
On the battlefield of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his late-night video address on Sunday, without providing details, that his country’s forces had regained control of two settlements in southern Ukraine and a in the separatist eastern Donetsk region.
Russian airstrikes hit the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv overnight, damaging a medical treatment facility, the city’s mayor said on Sunday.
Mykolaiv and its surrounding region are affected daily for weeks. On Saturday, a child was killed and five people were wounded in rocket attacks in the region, Governor Vitaliy Kim said.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych reported no injuries in the overnight attack, which he said also damaged residences. Mykolaiv, located 30 kilometers (20 mi) upstream from the Black Sea on the southern Bug River, is a major port and shipbuilding center.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Russian airstrikes set fire to a large wooden restaurant complex on Saturday afternoon, according to the region’s emergency services. One person was killed and two others were wounded in shelling in the region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have tried to take full control, said four people were killed in shelling on Saturday.
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Andrew Katell contributed to this story from New York.
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