Russia steps up energy war with pipeline shutdown – live

A UN inspection team led by its chief, Rafael Grossi, returned late on Friday after being able to inspect the site of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant despite intense shelling in the area.

Speaking at a news conference after his return to Vienna on Friday, Mr Grossi said six International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials remained at Zaporozhye, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, after he led a 14-man mission there .

He added that their number would be reduced to two next week and those two would be the IAEA’s permanent presence there in the long term.

Both sides have accused the other of shelling near the facility, which is still operated by Ukrainian personnel and supplies more than a fifth of Ukraine’s peacetime electricity.

Kyiv also accuses Russia of using it to protect its weapons, which Moscow denies. So far, Russia has resisted international calls to withdraw its troops from the plant and demilitarize the area.

Ukrainian armed forces have been conducting renewed offensive operations in southern Ukraine since August 29, the British Ministry of Defense (MOD) said in its latest intelligence today.

One element of this offensive is the continued advance of a broad front west of the Dnieper River, focused on three axes within the Russian-occupied Kherson region, it added.

“The operation has limited immediate objectives, but Ukraine’s forces have likely achieved a degree of tactical surprise; using poor logistics, administration and leadership in the Russian Armed Forces.

The ministry added that as fighting also continues in the Donbass and Kharkiv sectors, a key decision for Russian commanders in the coming days will be where to target any operational reserve forces they can generate.

Russia’s state natural gas supplier, Gazprom, heralded a major escalation in Moscow’s energy war with Western Europe on Friday when it announced that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would remain shut indefinitely, a move that raises the prospect of blackouts and economic turmoil throughout the world continent.

The decision was immediately condemned in capitals across Europe, but despite the anger, Gazprom’s decision will only heighten fears that Europe, long reliant on Russian energy, faces a harsh winter that is likely to include rationing along with potentially crippling price rises .

The 1,200-km (745-mile) underwater gas link, which runs from under the Baltic Sea near St. Petersburg to northeastern Germany, was due to reopen on Saturday after undergoing maintenance for several days.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader beloved by the West who lived long enough to see the undoing of all the reforms he championed in his homeland, will be buried on Saturday without state honors or the presence of the Kremlin’s current president.

Gorbachev became a hero in the West for enabling Eastern Europe to shake off more than four decades of Soviet communist control, allowing East and West Germany to reunify and forging arms control treaties with the United States.

But when the 15 Soviet republics took advantage of the same freedoms to demand their independence, Gorbachev was powerless to prevent the union’s collapse in 1991, six years after he became its leader.

Many Russians could not forgive him for this, nor for the economic chaos that his “perestroika” liberalization program unleashed.

Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at the age of 91, has been given a public send-off – Muscovites will be able to see his coffin in the imposing Hall of Columns, near the Kremlin, where former Soviet leaders were mourned.

But it was no surprise that Russian President Vladimir Putin, a longtime KGB intelligence officer who called the collapse of the Soviet Union a “geopolitical catastrophe,” refused Gorbachev full state honors and said he was too busy to attend the funeral.

Russia is using energy as a tool to pressure Europe, the White House said when asked about Russia’s delayed return of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.

“Unfortunately, it is not surprising that Russia continues to use energy as a weapon against European consumers,” a National Security Council spokesman told Reuters in an email about the shutdown of the pipeline that sends gas to Europe.

Russia canceled a deadline on Saturday to resume flows along the line, deepening Europe’s problems securing fuel for the coming winter.

Europe’s energy crisis deepened on Friday after Russian energy giant Gazprom said it could not yet resume natural gas supplies through a major pipeline to Germany.

European energy companies are scrambling to find extra supplies in the summer months to prepare for winter heating needs, buying expensive liquefied gas that comes by ship, while extra supplies come via pipelines from Norway and Azerbaijan.

Fears of winter shortages have eased somewhat as storage builds up, but a complete shutdown could leave Europe in dire straits, analysts say.

The European Union must increase its efforts to reduce gas consumption, said energy policy expert Simone Taliapietra of the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.

Continued cuts from Gazprom mean “a winter of zero Russian gas is the central scenario for Europe”. he said. “There’s only one way to prepare for this: reduce demand for gas and electricity.”

Gazprom said it had detected oil leaks from four turbines at the Portovaya compressor station on the Russian end of the pipeline, including the only operating one.

It claims it received warnings from Russia’s industrial safety watchdog that the leaks “do not allow safe and trouble-free operation of the gas turbine engine.”

“In connection with this, it is necessary to take the appropriate measures and to suspend the further exploitation of . gas compressor unit in connection with the found gross (safety) violations”, the company announced.

The head of Germany’s grid regulatory agency, Klaus Müller, tweeted that Russia’s decision to keep Nord Stream 1 off for now increases the importance of new liquefied natural gas terminals that Germany plans to start operating this winter, gas storage and “the significant need to save gas.

“It’s good that Germany is now better prepared, but now everything depends on everyone,” added Mr Müller.

Germany’s economy ministry said it had “taken note” of Gazprom’s latest announcement and would not comment directly, but added that “we have already seen Russia’s unreliability in recent weeks” as they continue their efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on Russian energy imports.

“Of course, these are difficult times, but we will continue to strengthen regulations consistently,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Major efforts are still needed, but we are well on our way to addressing the situation.”

The European Union just met its goal of filling its gas storage to 80% ahead of a Nov. 1 deadline, despite Russian supply cuts.

European energy companies are scrambling to find extra supplies in the summer months to prepare for winter heating needs, buying expensive liquefied gas that comes by ship, while extra supplies come via pipelines from Norway and Azerbaijan.

Fears of winter shortages have eased somewhat as storage builds up, but a complete shutdown could leave Europe in dire straits, analysts say.

Russia has requested 56 visas from the United States to allow Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his delegation to travel to New York for the annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations this month, but has so far received none.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres seen by Reuters on Friday, Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said it was “alarming” because over the past few months Washington had “continuously refused to grant entry visas” to a number of Russian delegates for other UN events.

The United States takes seriously its responsibilities as host country for the United Nations, a State Department spokesman said, adding that visa data is confidential under US law, so he could not comment on individual cases.

Under the UN’s 1947 “headquarters agreement,” the United States is generally required to allow foreign diplomats access to the UN. But Washington says it can deny visas for “security, terrorism and foreign policy” reasons.

Relations between the United States and Russia have soured since Moscow invaded neighboring Ukraine in February.

“We process hundreds of visas each year for delegates from the Russian Federation to UN events,” the State Department spokesman said, adding that applications should be submitted as early as possible to ensure timely processing.

“This is particularly important due to Russia’s unjustified actions against our embassy in Russia, including the forced dismissal of local and third-country national staff, which has severely limited our staff and therefore our capacity to process visas,” the spokesperson said.

Nebenzia said the necessary applications have been submitted to the US Embassy in Moscow.

Russian energy giant Gazprom has announced that a key pipeline supplying gas to Europe will remain closed indefinitely.

Russia’s state energy company said in a social media post that it had identified “malfunctions” at a key turbine on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which carries natural gas from western Russia to Germany.

Gazprom completely halted the flow of gas through Nord Stream 1 on Wednesday and said the shutdown would last for three days.