The nuclear nightmare is a recurring theme of this phase of the war in Ukraine. The focus is on the central from Zaporizhiain southern Ukraine, recently hit by a few rocket attacks, but has been the scene of a worrying series of attacks for weeks.
That mutual accusations between Kyiv and Moscow do not contribute to an exhaustive and clear picture of the situation. Russian forces have long occupied the nuclear site, using local labor to operate the facilities and, according to some witnesses, using parts of the facility as a base and “shield”. However, this would preclude Russia’s interest in actually hitting the nuclear power plant for the time being and endanger its own armed forces and any deposits.
The exchange of allegations between Kyiv and Moscow
On the Russian side, the line is attributable to the Kiev Armed Forces. As reported by Agi, Volodymyr Rogov, spokesman for the new administration of the region, told the Russia 24 channel that “the bombing of the nuclear power plant will be carried out with guided missiles made by the Anglo-Saxons themselves”, with the bullets falling a few meters from the nuclear fuel storage facility . Line also followed by the Duma, with the President Vyacheslav Volodin who said that “the actions of Washington and the Kiev regime carry the risk of a nuclear catastrophe” and called for the European Parliament to intervene.
The Ukrainians are completely opposed, after which the Zaporizhia plant is hit by the village of Vodiane, and the Russians launch rockets at the plant with “Ukrainian flags” to blame the opponents. The Ukrainian adviser Mikhail Podoliak He wrote that “the Russian Federation hits part of the nuclear power plant, where the energy that feeds the south of Ukraine accumulates. While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to Emmanuel Macron about “nuclear terrorism” by Moscow.
The node of control of the power plant
Control of the Zaporizhia power plant is crucial for two reasons. Primarily strategically, because the power plant in the south of Ukraine is elementary for the country’s energy supply and the management is a particularly important contractual lever. It is therefore of interest to both Russians and Ukrainians. Second, the topic is also psychologically, because owning a nuclear power plant in the country that suffered from the Chernobyl disaster also fuels a form of storytelling where you kind of have your hand on the trigger. A constant state of tension that allows neither advance nor retreat, a form of armed standoff where any risky move can lead to disaster. And meanwhile, as mentioned, it provides a very important argument in the more or less secret negotiations that are taking place between the two warring parties and especially between Russia and the West.
That core spectrum, if it was first associated with the possible use of nuclear devices, and then with the danger posed by the Russian movements near Chernobyl, it has therefore shifted to the level of power plants at this stage of the war. And it would no longer concern only Ukrainian territory. These days, as Nova reports, it is Fsbthe Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, issued a statement claiming that six pylons of the connection line to the Russian nuclear power plant had been sabotaged Kursk. The network was allegedly hit by Ukrainian hands on “August 4, 9 and 12.” The Russian services are on the trail of a group of saboteurs who, like the one that hit Crimea in these hours, could therefore operate elite units capable of working behind enemy lines and some nerve centers of enemy forces directly turn off Russian territory.
The role of international missions
On the other hand, energy atom, the agency that operates Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants, including the Zaporizhzhia site, sounded the alarm on its website yesterday about a devastating cyber attack. The technicians of the Ukrainian company speak of the “most powerful hacker attack on our official website since the beginning of the Russian invasion “, and according to initial reconstructions, the cyberattack was carried out through the use of 7.25 million bots that overloaded the system with millions of views on the site. a step that does not seem to have any impact on the infrastructures, but this suggests that the conflict plan could also shift to the IT plan, with potentially no less disastrous effects than a raid using traditional weapons.
Some observers are hoping to put a stop to this escalation around ZaporizhiaInternational Atomic Energy Agencywhich, according to Moscow representatives, had begun preparations for a second mission, on which the respective vetoes of Kyiv and Moscow weighed: The passage of technicians at the front and the way to reach the nuclear site is also a subject of dispute.