Russian military and political leadership may consider an attack on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive and create a radioactive gray zone in southern Ukraine, according to Mykhailo Podoliak, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
According to Mykhailo Podoliak, Russian forces will not keep hold of Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, where the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) is located. Russia will have to withdraw its troops from Enerhodar in the medium term if the Ukrainian counteroffensive yields success, Podoliak stated.
“Therefore, Russia is currently considering a large-scale terrorist attack at the ZNPP to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive and create a depopulated sanitary gray zone, fixed for the following years, as part of the territorial status quo without a ceasefire,” Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter. “This strategy also includes attempts to attack the dam in Kryvyy Rih with Kinzhals [ballistic missiles]. Additional mining of the nuclear power plant, including the cooling ponds, is underway.”
Russia may damage the ZNPP if there is no timely counteraction of the global world to the prepared scenario of a nuclear disaster, Podoliak said.
“The red lines have to be defined. The consequences must be announced. Not tomorrow. Today,” Podoliak wrote on Twitter.
Earlier today, Podoliak claimed that Russia had launched Kinzhal ballistic missiles to destroy a dam in Kryvyy Rih (southeastern Ukraine) last night but failed to inflict any damage.
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