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 down. Fighting in Ukraine and related pipeline disputes are behind power and gas shortages that have worsened as Russia’s war in Ukraine, which began on February 24, continues into its seventh month. Both issues will come into focus this week. Inspectors from the UN nuclear agency are scheduled to brief the Security Council on Tuesday about their inspection and visit to the Zaporizhzhia power plant. European Union energy ministers were due to hold an emergency meeting on Friday in Brussels to discuss the bloc’s electricity market, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said was “no longer working”. Much of the Zaporizhzhia region, including the key city of Melitopol, lost power on Sunday. But it was later restored, said Vladimir Rogov, the head of the local administration stationed in Russia in Enerhodar, the city where the nuclear power plant is located. In the southwest, power was also cut in several areas of the port of Kherson, according to Russia’s Tass news agency. While Rogov said no new shelling of the area around Zaporizhia’s six-reactor plant was reported on Sunday, the effects of previous strikes remained. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that the plant was disconnected from the last main external power line and one reactor was taken offline due to grid constraints. Another reactor was still operating and generating electricity for cooling and other essential safety functions at the site, as well as externally for households, factories and others through a backup power line, the IAEA said. Russian forces have held the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, since early March, with Ukrainian staff continuing to operate it. IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said he would brief the UN Security Council on Tuesday on a mission that led to the plant last week. The 14-member delegation braved gunfire and artillery blasts to reach the plant last Thursday after months of negotiations to allow passage through the front lines of the fighting. Without blaming either warring side, Grossi said his biggest concerns are the physical integrity of the plant, the power supply and the condition of the staff. Europe’s energy picture remained clouded by the war in Ukraine. Hours before Russian energy company Gazprom was due to resume gas deliveries to Germany via a major pipeline after a three-day outage, it announced on Friday that it would not be able to do so until oil leaks at the turbines were fixed. That’s the latest development in a saga in which Gazprom has promoted technical problems as the reason for cutting gas flows through Nord Stream 1 — explanations that German officials have dismissed as cover for a political power play. Rejecting Gazprom’s latest rationale for the shutdown, Germany’s Siemens Energy — which built turbines used by the pipeline — said leaking turbines can be fixed while gas continues to flow through the pipeline. Von der Leyen blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine for Europe’s energy crisis. Ahead of a meeting of EU energy ministers next Friday, he said electricity and gas prices should be decoupled and that he supports a price cap for Russian gas exported to Europe. Natural gas is one of the main fuels used in electricity production and is an important source of income for Russia, along with oil exports. In battleground Ukraine, Russian shelling hit the port of Mykolayiv in southern Ukraine overnight, damaging medical facilities, the city’s mayor said on Sunday. Mykolaiv and the surrounding area have been hit daily for weeks. On Saturday, one child was killed and five people were wounded in rocket attacks in the area, Governor Vitaly Kim said. Mykolayiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich reported no injuries in the overnight attack, which he said damaged homes. 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 shelling late Saturday set fire to a large wooden restaurant complex, according to the region’s emergency services. One person was killed and two others were wounded in shelling in the area, governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Pavlo Kirilenko, governor of the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces are trying to take full control, said four people were killed in shelling on Saturday.
Andrew Katell contributed to this story from New York.
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