Ukraine nuclear plant loses power line again

A worker cleans debris in the library of a school building following a missile strike in Kharkiv Saturday. Pic/AFP

A nuclear power plant on the front line of the Ukraine war again lost external power, U.N. inspectors said on Saturday, fuelling fears of disaster while Moscow kept its main gas pipeline to Germany shut to hurt economies of Kyiv's friends in the West.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest, had its last remaining main external power line cut off, although a reserve line continued supplying electricity to the grid, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said. Only one of the station's six reactors remained in operation, the agency said in a statement. The plant, seized by Russian troops shortly after their Feb. 24 invasion, has become a focal point of the conflict, with each side blaming the other for nearby shelling.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call that his country can play a facilitator role regarding the plant, his office said on Saturday.

A standoff over Russian gas and oil exports ramped up last week as Moscow vowed to keep its main gas pipeline to Germany shuttered and G7 countries announced a planned price cap on Russian oil exports. "Russia is preparing a decisive energy blow on all Europeans for this winter," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday, citing the Nord Stream 1 pipeline's continued closure. Zelensky has blamed Russian shelling for an Aug. 25 cutoff, the first Zaporizhzhia was severed from the national grid, which narrowly avoided a radiation leak. That shutdown prompted power cuts across Ukraine, although emergency generators kicked in for vital cooling processes.

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