"If detonated, they would not damage the reactors but would create an image of shelling from the Ukrainian side,” the statement on Telegram said. It said the Ukrainian army stood “ready to act under any circumstances”.
In his nightly video message, Zelenskiy said Russia was planning to “simulate an attack” on the plant. “But in any case, the world sees – and cannot fail to see – that the only source of danger to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is Russia. And no one else.”
Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian military provided no evidence for their assertions"
Oh good. Everyone is making it sound like they’re going to make a radioactive cloud that triggers article 5. Nope, they’re just making more shitty propaganda for the domestic Russian audience.
They’ve also rigged the reactors, we just don’t know if they’ll donate them as well or if that’s just a backup plan. But given Russia’s level of competence throughout the war who knows if they’ll accidentally detonate it.
That’s the part where it gets interesting. Either they commit to blowing the plant or not. If they do, we’ll see Article V activated and the war will be over.
If they don’t, this would be the smartest move though as said very aptly in the beginning of the war by a Ukrainian soldier “thank god they’re so fucking stupid” so I tend to think it will happen just out of incompetence.
If you forget all the death, destruction, terror, and shattered lives, you realize that Putin’s decisions have been so absurd that this might almost be funny.
Russia has warned the UN for almost a year that Ukraine have plans to use the Zaporizhzhia NPP as a “dirt nuclear bomb”, in order to blame it on Russia and justify NATO military intervention.
How do you think Ukraine are going make NATO believe that russia blew the plant?
It’s currently occupied by russia, it’s in annexed territory, they can’t just walk in plant a few explosives. I expect folk would notice if Ukraine threw some missiles at it.
So how?
It is not for the west to believe, it is for their home audience. If a dirty bomb made out of zaporizia goes off nato countries will get involved to help.clean up and control the plant and assist humanitarian efforts. Russia gov then still gets to play victim to its domestic audience blaming it all on other side. And some may be patriotic and want to believe and others will have to engage in doublethink and ‘have’ to believe it or be re-educated.
They were right about the dam. They’d been warning about that one for a while too.
Few people believe what Russia says anymore. They have been caught lying too many times, starting with the lie that their troops were just doing military training exercises close to the border and had no plans to invade Ukraine. In fact I remember them accusing the west of “acting like a bunch of hysterical women” over their claims Russia would invade. Then the next day, guess what? They invaded.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (UN nuclear watchdog) has been monitoring the ZNPP for months, at the request of Russia.
Today, they report there is no evidence of planted explosives at the ZNPP.
