The timing of the attack on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, ahead of the apparent peace talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine seems bizarre in the extreme. It is surely not the action of a rational country preparing for peace.
Nuclear power plants, especially Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in the south of Ukraine, have been at the heart of Russian operations since the invasion. Russia has been making threats of nuclear attack for three years.
The latest event at Chernobyl has seen a drone with a high explosive warhead – apparently an Iranian-made Shahed – detonate on the New Safe Confinement shield which was placed over the wrecked Number Four reactor, the site of the 1986 powerplant disaster. The previous, Soviet-era “sarcophagus” containment erected after the original explosion and fire had deteriorated, so the new structure was put in position in 2016. Constructed of steel and concrete, it is large enough to contain St Paul’s cathedral. However it has now been breached. Thus far there is no sign of elevated radiation levels outside the plant, but the situation is being monitored.
This an incredibly reckless act, but we have continued to see similar from Russian forces over the last 3 years. One instance of their wanton destruction was the breaching of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro, which not only caused huge destruction but also impaired the supply of cooling water to the ZNPP. There appears to be no limit to what Putin is prepared to do to subjugate the Ukrainian population – the attitude is something which Trump and his team seem to have missed thus far.
The timing of the attack on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, ahead of the apparent peace talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine seems bizarre in the extreme. It is surely not the action of a rational country preparing for peace.
Nuclear power plants, especially Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in the south of Ukraine, have been at the heart of Russian operations since the invasion. Russia has been making threats of nuclear attack for three years.
The latest event at Chernobyl has seen a drone with a high explosive warhead – apparently an Iranian-made Shahed – detonate on the New Safe Confinement shield which was placed over the wrecked Number Four reactor, the site of the 1986 powerplant disaster. The previous, Soviet-era “sarcophagus” containment erected after the original explosion and fire had deteriorated, so the new structure was put in position in 2016. Constructed of steel and concrete, it is large enough to contain St Paul’s cathedral. However it has now been breached. Thus far there is no sign of elevated radiation levels outside the plant, but the situation is being monitored.
This an incredibly reckless act, but we have continued to see similar from Russian forces over the last 3 years. One instance of their wanton destruction was the breaching of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro, which not only caused huge destruction but also impaired the supply of cooling water to the ZNPP. There appears to be no limit to what Putin is prepared to do to subjugate the Ukrainian population – the attitude is something which Trump and his team seem to have missed thus far.