Russia-Ukraine updates: Russian missiles hit close to nuclear reactors: IAEA director

A major pipeline that supplies natural gas from Russia to Europe will be shut down for three days for maintenance, Russian energy corporation Gazprom said Friday.

Gas supplies via the Nord Stream pipeline will be suspended from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 for "servicing and preventive maintenance" of its only operative gas compressor unit, Gazprom said.

Gas transmission is scheduled to resume after that period, barring any malfunctions, at a below-capacity rate of 33 million cubic meters per day, the company said.

The flow of gas via the pipeline has been reduced, and both Nord Stream pipelines were shut down for 10 days last month for maintenance, as Europe faces an energy crisis.

Russia has reportedly told some workers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant not to go to work on Friday, according to Ukrainian officials.

In an official Telegram channel, the main director of Ukraine's military intelligence said Thursday, "Occupiers announced an unexpected day off on August 19. At the nuclear plant there will only be operational staff. All other employees will be denied entry."

The official added that representatives of the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom also have "temporarily left the territory of the plant."

This comes as both Ukraine and Russia have warned of a provocation being planned at the plant Friday.

-ABC News' Britt Clennett

During a meeting in Lviv on Thursday with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the U.N. to ensure the demilitarization and "complete liberation" of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant from Russian forces, according to a statement from his office.

The two "agreed upon the parameters" of a possible visit to the plant by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, Zelenskyy's office said.

Russia has claimed a demilitarized zone around the plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, would make it more vulnerable.

During their meeting in Lviv, Zelenskyy also called for a U.N. fact-finding mission to head to Olenivka, where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in an explosion late last month.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

The international calls and proposals for Russia to create a demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine are "unacceptable," according to Ivan Nechayev, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Information and Press Department.

"Their implementation will make the plant even more vulnerable," Nechayev said at a press briefing on Thursday.

Moscow is expecting experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, to visit the Zaporizhzhia plant "in the near future," according to Nechayev.

The secretary-generals of the U.N. and the IAEA have called for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant, which is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.