Russia's military forces have placed artillery batteries near Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in a bid to stymie the Ukrainian counteroffensive that benefits from the persistent threat of disaster at the site, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.
“And now they have also mined this nuclear power plant,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday in a virtual appearance before Argentinean university students. “Why? Moscow is considering various scenarios ... for cynical military purposes. But we should not even think about which scenario is the most likely. We should only think about how to prevent any disastrous scenario.”
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Zelensky’s appeal to the students extended a series of warnings aired by Ukrainian officials about Russian plans for the destruction of the nuclear plant — “exactly one month,” as Zelensky emphasized, after the destruction of Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine. Russian authorities have responded with counter-claims that it is Ukraine that intends to sabotage the plant, but Moscow also has prevented United Nations inspectors on site from searching the facility for weapons.
“Our experts must be able to verify the facts on the ground,” International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said in a Wednesday statement. “Their independent and objective reporting would help clarify the current situation at the site, which is crucial at a time like this with unconfirmed allegations and counter allegations.”
Grossi’s team specified that the IAEA wants “access to the rooftops” of various reactors in a nod to Zelensky’s Tuesday declaration that Russian forces have placed objects “resembling explosives on the roof of several power units” in order to “simulate” a Ukrainian attack. Russian authorities, for their part, responded by insisting that Ukrainian forces intend to do just that.
“Zelensky is going to conduct a terror attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told state media. “Not a single corner of the planet will be unaffected, because there are such things as the atmosphere, the world ocean and agriculture.”
That’s an accusation that contains its own refutation, according to Western observers. “On their own territory, to blow up a nuclear reactor, spread radiation around their own country,” retired Ambassador Bill Taylor, who led the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on two different tours, told the Washington Examiner. “It makes no sense. Everything points to the Russians lying and trying to blame the Ukrainians, with no rationale.”
Amid the repeated salvos of dueling accusations, Ukrainian officials have signaled in public and in private that they do not expect Russia to sabotage the plant in the near future, as Moscow would prefer to retain possession of the plant intact.
“The Ukrainians have information that if Russians are forced to leave it, then they are creating something [to sabotage the plant],” a senior European official familiar with Ukrainian assessments told the Washington Examiner. “The Russians have not abandoned their main goal to get Ukraine ... so they want this nuclear power plant. It’s a good one. It can produce loads of electricity. So they don't want just to blow it up.”
Ukrainian intelligence officials claimed Monday that Russian authorities had ordered a reduction of their staff presence at the plant to take effect by July 5, a report taken as a sign of an impending plot, but Kyiv’s top spy downplayed the prospects of a disaster within days.
“We are doing certain actions in this area, both public and not public,” Ukrainian Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov told the Times of London in an interview published Wednesday. “And I think, now, that the danger of an artificial technogenic catastrophe is quietly going down.”
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Yet Ukrainian authorities express fear that Moscow may be emboldened by the lack of consequences for the destruction of the dam.
“Today, it is exactly 16 months since the Russian troops have been in full control of the territory and facilities of the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Different countries have their own intelligence and other capabilities to know exactly what is going on and who is to blame,” Zelensky said this week. “Unfortunately, there was no timely and large-scale response to the terrorist attack on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. And this may incite the Kremlin to commit new evil. It is the responsibility of everyone in the world to stop it, no one can stand aside, as radiation affects everyone.”