After the failure of the special operation with a nuclear incident at the ZNPP on July 5, the occupiers did not relent. SE NNEGC “Energoatom” warned about a new threat at the station. After evacuation of its own and Ukrainian nuclear workers, the russian leadership appoints inexperienced specialists from the russian federation without the necessary skills and without the appropriate license to operational management positions. Thus, operational management of the nuclear reactor is entrusted to an employee of the Balakovo NPP (russian federation), who has only seven months of work experience. What’s more, the occupiers are going to put power unit #4 of the Zaporizhzhia NPP into a “hot shutdown” state, while deliberately not bringing power unit #5 into a “cold shutdown.” Nuclear power engineers understand what this means – due to the dehydrated Kakhovka reservoir, when the two power units are operating in a state of “hot shutdown”, the water supply for cooling the reactors may not be sufficient, which creates a real threat of an emergency situation at the plant. The circumstances are complicated by the fact that the Ukrainian operatives cannot influence the situation in any way, because they are under the control of the armed russian military and are forced to follow their orders.
Also, the russian military continues to increase its presence at the station. On the roofs of the buildings, along the perimeter of the station, as well as inside the premises, the military is setting up new firing positions. In addition, there remains the danger of the russians artificially damaging engine rooms, generators or turbines of the ZNPP or blowing up the dam of the cooling pond, where their cars with explosives are already located. This will most likely cause a radiation accident.
Therefore, the threat of an artificial radiation accident at the ZNPP with a leak of the nuclear reactor coolant continues to exist.
There are several versions of what the russians want.
Firstly, the aim of the invaders may be to prepare for the rapid disabling of the station as an economic object in the event of the retreat of russian troops from the occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region, with the aim of sowing panic in Ukrainian society and demoralizing Ukrainian defenders.
Secondly, russia is deliberately destabilizing the situation regarding the ZNPP before the NATO summit. It is not for nothing that the satellite images of the Planet Labs service recorded the appearance of new objects similar to explosives on the roof of the fourth power unit of the ZNPP. And russian propaganda is “spinning” the next PSYOP with the narrative – “in order to push the West to invite to the Alliance, before the NATO summit on July 11-12, Ukraine will provoke an incident at the ZNPP.”
It is not known whether the russians will resort to the extreme option of a large-scale ecological terrorist attack at the Zaporizhzhia NPP, but such a possibility currently remains. To “cover up” preparations for sabotage, russia demonstrates that it seems to be worried about the nuclear plant and is not going to blow it up. For this PR action, on July 6, the deputy of the administration of the president of the russian federation came to the ZNPP, s. kiriyenko, supposedly in order to inspect in what mode it works and whether everything is okay here. The russian mass media paid a lot of attention to this visit, emphasizing that the ZNPP is working normally, and rosatom is renovating the premises here at its own expense. However, a document was noticed on the official resource of russian public procurement for st.petersburg that hints at the effectiveness of the russians’ plans to blow up the ZNPP. In particular, they are going to purchase services for eliminating the consequences of radiation contamination in Mariupol. It is worth noting that a similar document appeared even before the terrorist attack on the Kakhovka power plant.
Along with the preliminary data on russia’s ban on investigating accidents at nuclear power facilities in the occupied territories, this confirms russia’s readiness to use the most negative scenario with the provocation of an incident with radioactive contamination at the station and the subsequent accusation of this to Ukraine.
What should Ukraine do in such a situation?
❗️According to experts in the field of international law, the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance can stabilize the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP with one responsible decision. And the instrument for this should be the relevant conventions and norms of international law. Unfortunately, until now, none of the officials of the Western countries has made an official statement that the detonation of the ZNPP will have corresponding consequences for russia, and this will encourage putin to take more radical actions. After all, before that, by demonstratively handing over tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, russia proved that it ignores the agreement fundamental to the nuclear security of the world and in practice renounces the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Another proven measure to reduce the risks of a terrorist attack, which made it possible to avoid a russian provocation at the ZNPP on July 5, remains the maximum publicity in the world infospace of the available facts that russia is preparing a terrorist attack at the Zaporizhzhia NPP with the release of radiation.
