A politician supported by the Kremlin has delivered Russia’s most recent terrible threat of destruction by threatening attacks against the United Kingdom and the United States if Ukraine attempts to reclaim the Zaporizhia power facility.
Since March, the largest nuclear station in Europe has been located on Russian-occupied territory, yet it continues to be managed by Ukrainian specialists beneath the gun barrels of Putin’s forces.
According to Kiev, the Russian officer in control has rigged it with explosives and threatening to detonate it if Ukraine attempts to retake it.
There is also concern that Putin’s troops may use an accident at the factory as an excuse to escalate the conflict further.
Last night, the Kremlin-affiliated TV station Rossiya 1 showed Moscow’s most recent saber-rattling in reaction to the repeated artillery fire last week, which both sides blamed on the other.
Yury Kot, the head of the pro-Russian Ukrainian organisation Parus, said that it was Kiev and the West, not Putin, who were endangering nuclear safety.
He said, “We all see that [Ukraine and the West] are fabricating a false reality.” We are confronting the truth.
“We must inform Ukraine and its supporting nations, namely the United Kingdom and the United States,” and provide clarity. If the Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor is destroyed and a calamity happens, two missiles will attack your command center instantly.
One is in Washington, while the other is in London. There are nuclear ones.
“And that concludes it. There will be no more discussion.’ Aleksey Mukhin, chairman of the Centre for Political Information, rebuked Kot’s bellicose comments, saying, “This would trigger the mutual destruction protocol, therefore I would honestly avoid from making such statements.”
Putin bragged that his new Sarmat [Satan-2] and Tsirkon nuclear missiles are “invincible” against Western defenses.
Igor Korotchenko, a reserve colonel and editor-in-chief of Russia’s National Defence magazine, warned of a nuclear-style winter produced by Putin’s imposition of gas shortages on the West, even in the absence of a missile attack.
“Therefore, this planet is doomed,” he said.
‘Millions of Europeans…are afraid of the approaching winter. It will be comparable to a nuclear winter. Apocalypse unfolding before our eyes. Turning off the power, a scarcity of gas, marauders on the streets, conflicts with the police, and desperate people’s efforts to live are all a part of the disaster.
There will be no food, power, or fuel. And most importantly, there will be no hope.’
Major-general Valery Vasilyev, who heads Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical security soldiers, allegedly warned Ukraine about the Zaporizhzhia bombs, stating, “This will either be Russian territory or burned earth.”
According to Ukraine’s state-owned atomic energy company Energoatom, Vasilyev also instructed his soldiers that they must honorably carry out even the most difficult orders.
It follows a weekend of artillery explosions at the factory that damaged electricity cables, destroyed sensors, and injured a worker. Both Russia and Ukraine have held the other responsible for the attacks. Vasilyev’s views were also echoed by the Ukrainian ministry of culture and communications policy and by a senior advisor to the interior ministry, Anton Gerashchenko.
Gerashchenko said, “Nuclear extortion for the whole globe.”
Meanwhile, the chief of Energoatom, Petro Kotin, warned of a “Chernobyl-style” disaster if spent nuclear fuel containers at the facility are broken, stating that it would be “difficult to determine the size of this calamity” if two or more are compromised.
Kotin advocated the establishment of a ‘demilitarized zone’ surrounding the facility and the deployment of an international team of ‘peacekeepers’ to protect it.
Antonio Guterres, speaking from Japan to commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the United States, referred to the assaults on Zaporizhzhia as “suicidal.”
Last week, the Zaporizhzhia facility was attacked twice, first on Friday and again on Saturday, according to local officials.
The first assault destroyed a pylon leading to the site, while the second attempt injured a worker and damaged three safety sensors.
Ukraine said that one of the plant’s six nuclear reactors had to be shut down as a precautionary measure after the first assault.
Energoatom wrote following the conclusion of the assaults, “A nuclear disaster was miraculously averted, but miracles cannot endure forever.”
As Putin’s invasion of the nation falters, President Zelensky has charged Moscow of use ‘nuclear fear’ as a weapon.
However, Moscow has blamed Kiev for the onslaught, urging Western partners to increase pressure to cease the bombardment.
The world is worried by the events at the Zaporizhzhia location, where Kyiv claims Russia struck a power line on Friday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) need access to the facility, according to Guterres.
Guterres said, “We completely back the IAEA in their efforts to provide the circumstances for the stabilization of the facility.”
IAEA head Rafael Mariano Grossi issued a warning on Saturday that the most recent assault “highlights the very real possibility of a nuclear catastrophe.”