Report # 133. Kiev still shells ZNPP on the eve of the IAEA visit. To cancel it again?

August, 27, 2022

 1. Ukraine still adheres to “nuclear terrorism”

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has stated that the Kiev regime continued to engage in "nuclear terrorism” by targeting the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), firing long-range artillery projectiles at the territory of the facility located in the heart of Europe.

Unfortunately, such dangerous and barbaric actions

are still continued by president Zelensky without any interruption despite the debates devoted to the issue at two emergency meetings at the UN Security Council meetings held on August 11 and 23, 2022 [see previous Reports for additional details].

“Over the last 24 hours, artillery units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have shelled the territory of the ZNPP three times. A total of 17 shells were fired, four of which hit the roof of special building No. 1, where 168 assemblies with American nuclear fuel from the Westinghouse [Electric Corporation] company are stored,” the Russian MoD said.

The Ministry added that “another 10 shells exploded 30 meters away from the dry storage of spent nuclear fuel, and three more projectiles detonated in the area of special building No. 2, which houses the fresh nuclear fuel storage unit of the TVEL nuclear fuel company and the storage of solid radioactive waste.

The Russian MoD also noted that Ukrainian sheeling was arranged again from the city of Marganets, located in Dnepropetrovsk Region, still controlled by the ultra-Nazi regimes entrenched in Kiev.

 One U.S. howitzer М777 that fired at ZNPP was destroyed by Russian troops there.

The local authorities reported that in the morning on Saturday August 27 Ukrainian troops had launched 20 artillery strikes on the city of Energodar, including five on the ZNPP's territory directly.

At the same time monitoring of the technical condition of the ZNPP and ensuring its functioning is carried out by regular technical personnel. The Russian special military formation protects the external perimeter of the nuclear plant. There are no heavy weapons in the area of the NPP”, the Russian MoD said.

2. Does the USA see any profits in arming Ukraine?

On August 7, a documentary film entitled “Arming Ukraine” was presented at the Internet resource of the American TV channel CBS. In a few hours, the picture gained over 250 thousand viewers. Several thousand viewers left their comments. Many were outraged by the information about the disappearance of up to 70 percent of the weapons sent to Kiev, purchased by the current U.S. administration at the expense of taxpayers. The audience reacted with indignation watching the video in which a cache of Western weapons is located in a Ukrainian residential building, which is a violation of the rules of war and explains the facts of attacks on city blocks, which are presented by the Kiev regime as evidence of alleged Moscow’s “cruelty”. Many comments stressed the need to organize reliable control over arms supplies to Ukraine from the Western countries nowadays totaling nearly 50, including 30 members of NATO.

The film reminded the Americans of the circumstances of the urgent flight of the U.S. military contingent from Afghanistan, when weapons worth $ 80 billion fell into the hands of the Taliban Islamic movement. As a result, modern types of weapons, intelligence and communications equipment are used by militants in India and Pakistan. Today, the danger is potential import of “Ukrainian weapons and military equipment” to carry out terrorist attacks in American cities.

The footage drew criticism from the White House. The Biden administration’s policy of providing military-technical aid to “one of the most corrupt countries in the world” is called as short-sighted and unnecessarily wasteful of money from the U.S. federal budget.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, member of the House of Representatives (Republican, Georgia) noted that the content presented in the film fully confirms the correctness of her position on the inexpediency of providing military-technical assistance to Kiev [some U.S. weapons taken in Ukraine have been exhibited near Moscow in August 2022 at the International Forum “Army-2022”; see photo on the right].

Suggesting how Russia and Ukraine can reach a peace deal and end their six-month conflict, the divisive lawmaker said she was opposed to the U.S. funding a “proxy war” in Ukraine. “I am completely against funding this proxy war with nuclear Russia and Ukraine. I think we should be caring about our country. Of course, no one supports what happens there, everybody feels sorry for the Ukrainian people and all that, but you know what, our country matters, so to me, I’m not concerned at all about Ukraine. I’m concerned about America,” she underscored.

In her words, the proxy war there needs to end, and the USA does not need to be funding war over there. She claimed that the USA does not want a war with Russia, and nobody else does except the military industrial complex here in the USA

Congresswoman Lauren Opal Boebert (Republican, Colorado) criticized Washington’s intention to increase the scale of support for Ukraine in conditions when a significant part of the weapons sent by the West to Kiev do not reach the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the battlefield.

Probably, in connection with the initiated wave of criticism against the current U.S. administration, on the same day the video materials were removed from the Internet resource. Unfounded accusations of spreading false information and “pro-Russian orientation” and the staged nature of the film have been aimed at the CBS TV network.

The film confirmed the loss in Ukraine of a significant part of the weapons supplied by the West, served as another link in the chain of growing negative reaction in American society regarding the intentions of the Joseph Biden administration to continue providing military-technical assistance to Kiev without any interruptions.

What is the reaction of some U.S. officials?

The USA spends more money on the Armed Forces of Ukraine than Ukraine itself. Since January 2021, Washington has provided Ukraine with military aid roughly three times its annual defense budget, a White House spokeswoman said.

The Pentagon’s acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell told Bloomberg on August 25 that his office will test the effectiveness of the system that tracks U.S. weapons shipped to Ukraine as part of the Defense Department’s multi-billion dollar military assistance program [see photo below: the U.S. M777 howitzer captured in Ukraine at the International Forum “Army-2022”].

“As far as we can tell, right now, everything that is supposed to shoot and go boom, they are using every bit of it,” the official said, adding that the system needs to be double-checked as the Ukrainians use “hand receipts” to trace supplied arms. “I don’t think they have much fidelity” as to where it ends up, O’Donnell noted.

The Inspector General office will be looking into the weapons shipments to ensure that they are not being diverted to the black market, according to the report. Concerns over such risks have been voiced by various European and international law enforcement agencies, following evidence that at least some easier-to-smuggle Western arms have ended up in the hands of gunrunners offering them to clients online.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan earlier voiced concerns that supplying Ukraine with ATACMS missiles could escalate the conflict and lead to a world war. ATACMS or MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System is a larger tactical-level ballistic missile that can travel up to 300km.

Washington is not supplying Kiev with longer-range ATACMS missiles at present because most Russian targets are within range of other weapons, a senior Pentagon official has explained. The assessment was made by U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl as he briefed the media on military assistance being provided to Ukraine. Kahl said the reason for not sending them was purely military and based on the reports that Ukraine provides to the USA.

It has been announced recently in Washington that the White House has ordered to send one more “basket” of lethal arms to be delivered to failed Kiev regime that should be replaced a long time ago for war crimes, inefficiency and nuclear blackmail. It is 20th such “basket” for $ 2.98 billion since February 24, 2022.

The package, which marks the single largest tranche since Russia launched SMO in Ukraine six months ago to defend civilians in Donbass, includes six more of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems with additional ammunition, up to 245,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition; 65,000 rounds of 120mm mortar ammunition; up to 24 counter-artillery radars; and unnamed laser-guided rocket systems. The USA plans to send the M982 Excalibur, which is a laser-guided projectile made by Raytheon.

The 19th package announced just two weeks ago for $775 million, included new drones, armored vehicles and artillery also used to damage ZNPP.

These two August packages are as part of the $40 billion in security and economic aid passed by Congress and signed into law by Biden in May, 2022.

The shipments indicated that Washington and Kiev expect hard fighting on the ground in the coming weeks or months. Obviously, with the strategic goal: to worsen European and global military and political situation.


But does the USA actually get any profits by arming Ukraine?

No, there are only negative results.

There is no end in shelling civilians in Donbass with heavy weapons.

There are no reductions in Ukrainian human losses.

 There are no official talks between Kiev and Moscow on substantial issues.

There is no Kiev’s refusal to stop nuclear blackmail by shelling ZNPP.

There is no security in Europe and in the world at large.

There are no normal and stable economy in Europe and the USA.


 

Written by Vladimir P. Kozin

 

28.08.2022
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