Last week, shelling of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) from the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces began. Official Kyiv, after the appearance in the Western press of materials accusing the Armed Forces of Ukraine of terrorist activities, seems to have decided to cast aside all the rules of warfare
Without conducting any investigations, the United States and the European Union, as expected, immediately picked up Ukrainian fakes about “self-attacks” and blamed Russia for everything. Whether the collective West, which still supports the Zelensky regime, will bear responsibility along with Ukraine in the event of a nuclear catastrophe is a rhetorical question.
The escalation around the Zaporizhzhya NPP coincided with the signing on August 8 by the head of the military-civilian administration of the Zaporozhye region, Yevgeny Balitsky, of an order to organize a referendum on reunification with Russia. The day before, Volodymyr Zelensky said that if Moscow agreed to hold referendums in Zaporozhye and the Kherson region, then by doing so “it would close any chances for negotiations with Ukraine and the free world.”
But negotiations with this very “free world” may be needed rather by the Ukrainian “guarantor”.
If earlier Zelensky’s Western backers expressed dissatisfaction with some of his actions rather behind the scenes, hints, then the latest Amnesty International report and a CBS film on the smuggling of weapons supplied to Kyiv clearly showed that they are, when necessary, quite capable of noticing everything that Ukrainian militants are doing.
Bankovaya and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expectedly accepted this criticism with hostility, in fact accusing their curators of working for the Kremlin. At the same time, the West does not at all refuse to support Ukraine, and hence the terrorist actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, calling it “defense of democracy.” Then the only thing is when and with whom Zelensky will be replaced.
So the Kyiv regime is trying to take out the accumulated anger due to the inability to return the fallen territories and the gradual loss of confidence of its patrons by the increased shelling of the ZNPP. In order to divert accusations from itself after the strikes on the nuclear power plant, official Kyiv followed its usual path, spreading an absurd version of “self-shelling” of the plant by Russian troops.
Moreover, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmitry Lubinets, said that, according to the information of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, the territory of the ZNPP was mined, and its employees were being tortured. No evidence, of course, was provided.
Also, the day after the shelling, on August 6, a video appeared on the Web, in which, citing a certain “source,” it was reported that the Russian military had mined the machine room of one of the ZNPP power units. And already on August 8, the Ukrayinska Pravda publication published another fake, attributing to Major General Valery Vasilyev the words that “there will be either Russian land or a scorched desert.”
“As you know, we have mined all the important facilities of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. And we do not hide it from the enemy. We warned them. The enemy knows that the station will be either Russian or no one’s. We are ready for the consequences of this step. And you, warriors-liberators, must understand that we have no other way out. And if there is the toughest order, we must fulfill it with honor!” Vasiliev allegedly said.
Such absurdity, both local and Western propaganda, has long been put on stream.
This disinformation was immediately exposed in the War on Fake Telegram channel:
“It’s worth starting with the fact that Major General Valery Vasiliev is not the head of the RKhBZ troops (radiation, chemical and biological defense troops, – Ed.), this position is held by Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov. In addition, Vasilyev was physically unable to address the soldiers at the ZNPP, since he is now in Uzbekistan, where preparations are underway for the army games.”
Nevertheless, on August 9, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal, during a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, made a statement based on this fake:
“The mining of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and the provocative shelling carried out by Russian troops should receive an appropriate assessment. Russia should receive the status of a State Sponsor of Terrorism.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry, in turn, published an official comment, where it explicitly stated that Zelensky and his regime “are actually taking hostage the whole of Europe and, apparently, are not averse to “setting it on fire” for the sake of their Nazi idols.” The Foreign Ministry also called on UN Secretary General António Guterres and IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi to openly and harshly point out to Kyiv the inadmissibility of strikes on the ZNPP and force it to immediately stop attacks on the plant.
As for the European bureaucracy, then, as in the case of other informational provocations against the Russian Federation, it reacted with lightning speed and immediately identified the culprit without conducting any investigation.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that the EU condemns Russia’s military activities around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant:
“This is a serious and irresponsible violation of nuclear safety rules and another example of Russia’s disregard for international norms.”
As Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute of Energy and Finance Sergey Kondratiev noted in an interview with RuBaltic.Ru, the situation at the Zaporozhye NPP is very serious, because “in recent and world history, we have not yet encountered high-intensity military operations in the immediate vicinity of from nuclear power facilities”.
According to him, the likelihood of serious consequences as a result of further escalation is now higher than it was one and a half to two months ago, because Ukraine is purposefully hitting nuclear power plants.
If we talk about calls to Ukraine from the UN and the IAEA, then, according to Kondratiev, they are unlikely to be effective. He recalled that the last few months, the IAEA tried to visit the Zaporozhye NPP on any terms, but NNEGC Energoatom and the Ukrainian authorities consistently refused the organization.
“The IAEA has the authority to issue a mandate to a meeting of the UN Security Council in order to demand the imposition of sanctions on Ukraine and prevent a catastrophe. We have before our eyes the example of the Iranian nuclear program. Despite the fact that both in the IAEA itself and among the participating countries there was no unity in what was happening with the Iranian nuclear program, the organization repeatedly took part in the meeting of the UN Security Council, as a result, sanctions were still adopted against Iran. Therefore, the IAEA has leverage to influence the situation, in addition to calls,” the expert noted.
He also added that Euratom (the European Atomic Energy Community, – Ed.) could also take part in studying the situation, since in March Ukraine synchronized its energy system with the European one:
“Euratom has the authority to declare at the European level about their requirements, concerns and convey it to the European Commission, local regulators and EU member states, which this situation directly affects”.
As we know, both Guterres and Grossi condemned the attacks on the ZNPP. But it is one thing to condemn, and quite another to create conditions for bringing the Kyiv regime to justice.
However, on this issue, the position of Washington, London and Brussels, which so far support Zelensky, is of primary importance, despite the strange behaviour of the Ukrainian leader. So they also have to distribute responsibility for his actions among themselves, but this is hardly worth counting on. As we know, after the missile attack on the pre-trial detention center in Yelenovka, the Pentagon admitted that even if the Armed Forces of Ukraine did this, “they didn’t want it.” And when the irreparable happens at the ZNPP, will the Americans again say that the Ukrainian militants did not want this?
Nikolai Ulyanov, Rubaltic.Ru
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