Saturday’s offer came hours before the world’s atomic energy watchdog said Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had been disconnected from the last remaining main power line on the grid and was now relying on a backup line. Amid growing alarm over shelling in the area of Europe’s largest nuclear plant in recent weeks, Ukraine said on Friday it had bombed a Russian base in the nearby town of Enerhodar, destroying three artillery systems as well as an ammunition depot. Erdogan told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday that “Turkey can play a facilitating role in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, as it did in the grain deal,” the Turkish presidency said. Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest grain exporters, was forced to halt almost all deliveries after Russia invaded in late February, raising fears of a global food crisis. Grain exports to Black Sea ports resumed after Kiev and Moscow signed an agreement in July, with the United Nations and Turkey acting as guarantors. There was no immediate report that Erdogan also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday to offer his mediation. Last month, Erdogan warned of the risk of nuclear disaster when he visited Lviv for talks with the Ukrainian leader. The Turkish leader said he wanted to avoid “another Chernobyl”, referring to the world’s worst nuclear accident in another region of Ukraine in 1986, when it was still part of the Soviet Union.
“Sick” condition in the factory
This week, a 14-person team from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited Zaporizhia, with the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, saying the site had been damaged in the fighting. “Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has once again lost connection to the last remaining main external power line, but the facility continues to supply electricity to the grid through a backup line, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has informed . at the scene today,” the agency said in a statement on Saturday. Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from Kyiv, said the situation at the power plant was “very delicate at this time”. The plant is “right on the front lines and right close in and around the area where the Ukrainian military is conducting a counteroffensive in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine,” Elizondo said. “It’s important to remember that electricity and power are so critical to nuclear power plants because they need to be kept cool for safety reasons. If a nuclear power plant loses power permanently, or even temporarily, it could lead to an incredible nuclear disaster.” Russia’s invasion of western Ukraine has killed thousands and driven millions from their homes. Western powers responded by sending military aid to Kyiv in an attempt to halt the Russian advance and imposing economic sanctions on Moscow.
EU ‘well prepared’ for Russian ‘gas weapon’
On Friday, the Group of Seven major industrialized nations pledged to move urgently to set a price ceiling on imports of Russian oil, a critical source of revenue for Moscow. Later, Russian gas giant Gazprom said it had suspended gas deliveries to Germany indefinitely because of turbine leaks. The German manufacturer said this was not a valid reason to stop the gas flow. However, EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said the EU is better placed to handle the possibility of a complete disruption of Russian gas deliveries, thanks to storage capacity and energy-saving measures. “We are well prepared to resist Russia’s extreme use of physical weaponry,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an economic forum. In the EU, “gas storage is currently around 80%, thanks to the diversification of supplies” even if the situation varies from one country to another, Gentiloni said. Ukraine has accused Russia of stockpiling ammunition in Zaporizhia and deploying hundreds of troops there. It is also suspected that Moscow intends to divert power from the plant to the nearby Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
