Energy problems are felt beyond Ukraine’s borders
Nuclear plant still hobbled; Russian gas pipeline closed
KYIV, Ukraine — Energy problems plagued Ukraine and Europe as much of the Russian-occupied region that’s home to a largely crippled nuclear power plant was reported to be temporarily blacked out Sunday.
Just one of six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia facility was connected to the electricity grid, and Russia’s main pipeline carrying natural gas to Germany remained shut down.
The fighting in Ukraine and related disputes over pipelines lie behind the electricity and natural gas shortfalls that have worsened as the war grinds on.
Both issues will take center stage this week. United Nations nuclear agency inspectors are scheduled to brief the Security Council on Tuesday about their visit last Thursday to the Zaporizhzhia power plant. European Union energy ministers were slated to hold an emergency meeting Friday in Brussels to discuss the bloc’s electricity market, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said “is no longer operating.”
Much of the Zaporizhzhia region, including the key city of Melitopol, lost power Sunday.
But electricity was gradually being restored, said Vladimir Rogov, the head of the Russia-installed local administration in Enerhodar, where the nuclear plant is located. To the southwest, power was also out in several parts of the port city of Kherson, according to Russia’s Tass news agency. Rogov blamed the outages in both locations on damage to power lines.
While Rogov said no new shelling of the area around the six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant was reported Sunday, the effects of earlier strikes lingered.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday that the plant was disconnected from its last main external power line and one reactor was disconnected because of 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 households, factories and others through a reserve power line, the IAEA said.
Russian forces have held the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, since early March, with its Ukrainian staff continuing to operate it.
Meanwhile, Europe’s energy picture remained clouded by the war.
Hours before Russian energy company Gazprom was due to resume natural gas deliveries to Germany through a major pipeline after a three-day stoppage, it announced Friday that it couldn’t do so until oil leaks in turbines are fixed.
That is the latest development in a saga in which Gazprom has cited technical problems for reducing gas flows through Nord Stream 1, explanations German officials have rejected as a cover for a political power play. Dismissing Gazprom’s latest rationale for the shutdown, Germany’s Siemens Energy — which manufactured turbines the pipeline
uses —said leaks can be fixed while gas continues to flow through the pipeline.
Von der Leyen blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine for Europe’s energy crisis. Before the EU energy ministers’ meeting set for the end of the week, she said electricity and natural gas prices should be decoupled and that she supports a price cap on Russian pipeline gas exported to Europe.
Natural gas is one of the main fuels used in electricity generation and is a major source of Russia’s income,
along with oil exports.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday, without providing specifics, that his country’s forces had retaken control of two settlements in Ukraine’s south and one in the separatist eastern Donetsk region.
Russian shelling hit the southern Ukraine port city of Mykolaiv during the night, damaging a medical treatment facility, the city’s mayor said Sunday.
Mykolaiv and its surrounding region have
been hit daily for weeks.
On Saturday, a child was killed and five people were wounded in rocket attacks in the region, Gov. Vitaliy Kim said.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych didn’t report injuries in the attack. Mykolaiv is a key port and shipbuilding center.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Russian shelling late Saturday set a large restaurant complex on fire, according to the region’s emergency service. One person was killed, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.