KYIV, Ukraine: Energy shortages plague Ukraine and Europe. The nuclear power plant, which was largely destroyed as a result of the Russian invasion, reportedly temporarily shut down on Sunday.

Only one of the six reactors at the Zaporizhia facility in southern Ukraine, one of the world's 10 largest nuclear power plants, is connected to the electricity grid. Russia's main natural gas pipeline to Germany has been shut down.

Disputes over pipelines are behind worsening electricity and natural gas shortages as the Ukraine-Russia war, which began on February 24, enters its seventh month.

U.N. Nuclear Agency inspectors will meet the Security Council on Tuesday regarding an inspection and safety visit to the Zaporizhia 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 region, including the Zaporizhia region's main city of Melitopol, lost power on Sunday.

But power was gradually restored, said Vladimir Rogov, head of the Russian-founded regional administration in Enerhodar, the city where the nuclear plant is located. In the southwest, power was out in many parts of the port city of Kherson, according to Russia's Tass news agency. Rogov blamed the failure of high-voltage power lines for the power outages in both places.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said he will brief the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday on a mission he 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 enable passage through the fighting's front lines.
Without blaming either warring side, Grossi said the concerns were for the physical integrity of the plant, the power supply and the condition of workers.

Europe's energy picture remains clouded by the war in Ukraine.

Hours before Russian energy company Gazprom was due to resume natural gas supplies to Germany through a major pipeline after a three-day shutdown, it announced on Friday that supplies could not be resumed until an oil leak in the turbines was found and fixed.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, told last week that the situation surrounding the Zaporizhzhia plant "is completely out of control," and he issued an urgent plea to Russia and Ukraine to allow experts to visit the complex to stabilize matters and avoid a nuclear accident.

"Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated" at the plant, What is at stake is extremely serious and highly grave and dangerous, also we are not sure the plant is getting all it needs," Grossi said. He noted that the IAEA also needs to perform highly important inspections to ensure that nuclear material is being safeguarded.

Grossi added that there had been instances of friction and reports of violence between the Russians and the Ukrainian staff.

"When you put this together, you have a catalog of things that should never be happening in any nuclear facility," Grossi said.

Ukraine previously opposed Grossi's visit to the site. This week, however, Ukrainian officials appeared to warm up to such a trip, with Ukraine's ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, urging the U.N. and IAEA to send a delegation to help "completely demilitarize the territory" and provide security guarantees to plant employees.