Report 121. Kiev’s attack on the ZNPP. Must not to be camouflaged

August 10, 2022

On August 7, the Armed Forces of Ukraine or AFU again subjected the territory of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) to direct and intentional artillery fire. Two their previous attempts to destroy this plant the largest in Europe happened quite recently: on July 20 and August 5, 2022. The repetition of such nuclear terrorism by Kiev was the result of ‘I do not see anything’ behavior displayed by two international chieftains controlling the IAEA and the UNO. Noticing such policy, Kiev, no doubt, will repeat such attacks on the ZNPP or any other located kin Ukraine.


The strike was carried out by a Uragan MLRS rockets, fragments of which were found less than 400 meters from the power unit of the ZNPP.


Probably, the purpose of the "nuclear terrorists" was the reactor cooling system. President Zelensky knows for sure. Nuclear spent fuel storage facilities were in the affected area. The authorities of the Zaporozhye region offered the IAEA to get acquainted with the evidence on the spot that it is the Ukrainian military who are shelling the nuclear power plant and are trying to arrange provocations that are dangerous for the majority of nations in Europe and the Black Sea area. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation confirmed its readiness to receive the agency's mission at the NPP.

In a daily video message, President of Ukraine Zelensky again did not fail to draw the attention of the West to Kyiv, raising the degree of tension with an emphasis on threats to European security. Only he delicately left the question of the admission of IAEA experts aside to visit the ZNPP, as the conclusions they draw in the event of an inspection will reveal the truth about the real attacker, which will automatically secure the status of a “terrorist state” for Ukraine.

In Kyiv, they say that Moscow is shelling this nuclear power plant, which is under its own control. Strange argument. To contaminate Russian territory?

 After publication in the British daily tabloid the Daily Mail, an article that passed off the blows as Russian actions was followed by a lot of comments. The British express deep doubts about the truth of the accusations based on "fake Ukrainian reliable sources" and call for an end to the provision of assistance to Ukraine. Readers of the Figaro edition are perplexed, is it really that "Kyiv is holding everyone in the West for idiots", in every possible way trying to "pass off such nonsense as the truth." On August 10, the reaction of Washington, expected and so desired by Zelensky, followed. White House press secretary Jean-Pierre urged Russia to "cease all hostilities at or near Ukrainian nuclear facilities and return full control to Ukraine." Denying the obvious, she praised the "efforts in maintaining nuclear security”, which Ukraine allegedly applies in “these difficult conditions”.


Jean-Pierre has forgotten that the latest Kiev’s attack upon the ZNPP is not the first one. In July and August Kiev three times ‘played with fire’ there. In other words: ‘played with potential radioactive disaster’ in the heart of Europe.


Dmitry Orlov, Ukrainian mayor of Energodar, a city located very close to the ZNPP, commenting on the UAV strikes on the industrial zone and the ZNPP itself on July 12 and 18, confirmed their infliction by the Ukrainian side, saying that "the goals were achieved, the Russians died." In early August, the website of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine published a statement by the Main Intelligence Directorate, which stated that in July, Ukrainian forces had inflicted strikes on Russian positions near the NPP. Regarding the reasons for the events of August 5, Kyiv propagandists could not avoid contradictions in the versions of what happened, voiced by Ukrainian officials. The same mayor of Energodar announced the strikes of the Russian Armed Forces from the territory of the nuclear power plant on residential areas of Energodar. On the contrary, the head of JSC "Energoatom" of Ukraine argued the opposite, that the blows were delivered in the direction of the NPP. In his Telegram channel, the head of the military administration, located on the opposite side of the Dnieper, controlled by Ukraine, Nikopol, Evgeniy Yevtushenko, also regularly confirmed the work of the artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the direction of Energodar.

Surprisingly, the focus of public statements on the "Zaporozhye" theme of the IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi softened after the UAF inflicted several strikes on nuclear power plant in Zaporozhye. This is probably due to the politicization of the organization. Thus, after the transfer of Energodar to the control of the Russian Federation, there were dozens of loud calls about the inadmissibility of “dual control” of nuclear power plants, allegedly because of the threat of possible disagreements between Ukrainian operators and Russian specialists.


Today, in the conditions of systematic shelling of a nuclear power facility by artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the rhetoric of statements is reduced to only "we are concerned about the situation." No specific decisions. No plans for counteraction. No future data for inspections. Nothing concrete. Shame!


Advisor to the Director of the Russian Scientific Center "Kurchatov Institute", Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Andrey Gagarinsky, on the air of Sputnik radio, called the Ukrainian shelling of the Zaporozhye NPP "barbarism" and called on the IAEA leadership to take urgent measures. He noted that humanity spends huge amounts of money to protect nuclear power plants from all known natural and man-made phenomena, however, until today, "no one in the world has tried to protect such facilities from direct artillery strikes."

A radioactive catastrophe cannot be avoided, both in the case of the destruction of the concrete protection of one or several power units, and the destruction of the reactor cooling system.

Back in May 2022, the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine published a forecast for the spread of a radioactive cloud in the event of an accident at the ZNPP, according to which, along with Russia, the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine, Turkey and other countries of the Black Sea basin will suffer.

The Republic of Moldova is already taking preventive measures in case of radiation contamination. Thus, on August 9, the head of the Main Department of Medical and Social Assistance in Chisinau, Boris Gylke, published recommendations in the regional print publication EurAsia Daily in the event of a nuclear disaster at the ZNPP. The head of the Ministry of Health of Moldova, Alla Nemerenko, signed an agreement with her Romanian counterpart Alexander Rafila on the supply of more than a million tablets of potassium iodide to Chisinau to reduce inevitable radioactive contamination.

Who will pay for all this? And in all other similar cases? President Zelensky? Or the UN Secretary General Guterres? Or the Head of the IAEA Grossi? I believe: all of them.

On August 11, 2022 Moscow requested the UN SC meeting on the ZNPP attack.

Written by Vladimir P. Kozin

 

11.08.2022
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