The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in eastern Ukraine has been very unstable since the start of the Russian invasion. But according to the Ukrainian secret service, things could be much worse. They say they have information that Russia is planning an attack on the plant.
“In the coming weeks, the wind will come from the southeast and east, and the particles will drift towards the unoccupied part of Ukraine”
If they intend to do so, they appear to have an adequate opportunity to do so this week, says defense specialist Patrick Bolder of the Center for Strategic Studies in The Hague. This has to do with time.
“Normally the wind blows there from the west,” Bolder says. “This means that if anything were to happen to the facility, Russia would have the cloud radioactively loaded onto itself. In the coming weeks the wind will come from the southeast and east. Then the particles would float towards the unoccupied part of Ukraine.”
They are rumors
Bolder, on the other hand, takes a shot in the arm. “These are all rumors coming from Kyrylo Budanov, the head of military intelligence,” he says. “The Russians have told the UN Security Council that they have absolutely no plans in that direction.”
But if it comes to that, the consequences would be enormous, according to Bolder. ‘Such an accident near a large agricultural area would have long-lasting consequences. It would cause an ecological disaster. After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, we were no longer allowed to harvest some crops thousands of kilometers away in the Netherlands.’
Massacre at Bachmut
The defense specialist finds it difficult to estimate whether the Russians would be able to do such a thing. But he notes that “the lives of Russian soldiers seem to be of little interest to Moscow.” He looks at the Bachmoet massacre,” Bolder says. “And at the beginning of the war the soldiers buried themselves in the radioactive soil of Chernobyl. Why should they be reluctant now?’