The Russian energy company Gazprom announced that the Nord Stream pipeline 1 would not restart on schedule on Saturday, citing turbine damage. Gazprom’s CEO, Alexei Miller, indicated that Siemens could not carry out repairs because of sanctions. The European Commission chief spokesman, Eric Mamer, said Gazprom was staging the shutdown “under fallacious pretences”.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, who returned from a first visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, said six of the team’s experts remained at the site to continue the work. He told reporters the mission would produce a report early next week of its findings. Grossi said military operations were increasing in the region of the plant, “which worries me a lot”. He said the military presence was not available when he asked to speak to them about the control centre, they did not approach his team and they were “withdrawn” throughout their visit to the Russian-controlled facility in south-eastern Ukraine .
Finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations have announced they plan to implement a price cap on Russian oil. In a statement, the ministers said the cap was designed to reduce “Russia’s ability to fund its war of aggression” and that they would “urgently work on the finalisation and implementation” of the measure, but left out key details of the plan.
Prior to the G7 announcement, the Kremlin said imposing the price cap would trigger Russian retaliation. If G7 leaders went ahead it would lead to significant destabilisation of the global oil market, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Ukraine’s military has claimed that Russian forces suffered “significant losses” in the southern region of Kherson following Kyiv’s counteroffensive launched earlier this week. Ukraine’s successes have been “quite convincing”, according to a spokesperson for the southern Ukrainian military command, who added that more “positive news” would likely follow “very soon”.
Ukrainian troops have pushed back Russian forces at several points around Kherson, according to western officials. Officials estimate that about 20,000 Russian troops are in the pocket of the southern region, and caution that it is too soon to determine if Ukraine’s counterattack is working.
The “physical integrity” of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been “violated several times”, Rafael Grossi said. The IAEA chief said after leading the inspection team that while he would continue to worry about the plant, the situation was “more predictable” now.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of manipulating and distorting information shared with the IAEA. Ukrainian state-owned operator Energoatom said Russian officials “are making every effort to prevent the IAEA mission from getting to know the real state of affairs. They spread manipulative and false information about this visit.”
The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has accused Ukraine of “nuclear terrorism”. Pro-Russian proxy authorities in Zaporizhzhia have accused Kyiv of trying to smuggle “spies” into the IAEA inspection team posing as journalists.
The head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, has restated the expansionist military aims of Russia’s invasion. “Our task is to liberate all Russian cities that were founded by Russian people during the time of the Russian Empire, and developed during the Soviet Union thanks to the help of our entire vast country,” Pushilin said. “This is not only the territories of Novorossia [the Donbas], but also much wider. It will not be any other way.”
