RTSat, 17 Aug 2024 21:54 UTC
© Sputnik / Aleksey DanichevFILE PHOTO: Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Any attempt by Kiev to trigger an environmental disaster will be met with immediate retaliation, Moscow warns
The international community should resolutely respond to reports about alleged plans by Kiev to attack the nuclear power plant in Kursk, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.
Earlier, Russian journalists reported on the plot, and the Defense Ministry vowed a swift and harsh response if these plans come to fruition.
The Ukrainian military launched a cross-border incursion into the Russian border region where the plant is located last week.
The facility is 90km from the border, which has become the arena of fierce clashes in recent days.
"We call on the international bodies, the UN and the [International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)] in particular, to immediately condemn the provocative actions prepared by the Kiev regime and to prevent the violation of both nuclear and physical security of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant," Zakharova said in a statement published by the ministry on Telegram. These actions by the Ukrainian military "could result in a large-scale technogenic catastrophe in Europe," she warned.
Kiev's plans do not just pose a "direct threat" to the nuclear power plant's security but also go against the principles of the IAEA formulated by its head, Rafael Grossi, in 2022, amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the spokeswoman stated.
"The entire international community should understand the threat posed by the neo-Nazi Kiev regime to the European continent," Zakharova said. She also maintained that any attempts to "intimidate and terrorize entire regions and all of the international community should be resolutely stopped by joint efforts."
Neither the UN nor the IAEA have responded to the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement as of Saturday evening.Russian military journalist Marat Khairullin reported on Friday, citing sources, that Kiev was plotting a false flag operation involving the detonation of a dirty atomic bomb and targeting the spent nuclear fuel storages of a nuclear power plant. According to reporters, the operation would either be directed against Russia's Zaporozhye NPP in Energodar or the Kursk NPP.
The Zaporozhye plant is the largest in Europe and is also located close to the front line. Kiev has vehemently denied the allegations.The Russian Defense Ministry responded to the reports by saying that any attempts to create a "man-made disaster in the European part of the continent" would be met with "tough military and military-technical countermeasures."
Comment:
1) See also:
2) From August 12:
Fire breaks out at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant amid Ukraine-Russia conflict
Ukraine as usual accuses Russia of bombing itself. The point is that: "Only Ukrainian control over the Zaporizhzhia NPP can guarantee a return to normalcy and complete safety." From the article:
About 15 minutes later, around 1500 ET, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on X that "Russian occupiers have started a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant."
Zelensky continued:
Currently, radiation levels are within norm. However, as long as the Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal.
Since the first day of its seizure, Russia has been using the Zaporizhzhia NPP only to blackmail Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world.
We are waiting for the world to react, waiting for the IAEA to react. Russia must be held accountable for this. Only Ukrainian control over the Zaporizhzhia NPP can guarantee a return to normalcy and complete safety.
3) From the same source:
17 Aug, 2024 16:22
Ukraine making a 'serious nuclear gamble' - ex-Pentagon official
Kiev's alleged "dirty bomb" threat is an attempt to gain leverage over Moscow, Michael Maloof has said
18 Aug, 2024 07:51
Ukraine could trigger 'another Chernobyl' - ex-US Army officer to RT
A meltdown at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant would make the region uninhabitable, Stanislav Krapivnik has warned
The exclusion zones near
Chernobyl is around around 30 km. The
zone rouge, or in English, red zone, in northern France that was deemed uninhabitable after WWI warring covered large areas of which most were later recovered, but some remain to this day highly toxic or littered with buried unexploded shells. Given these examples, it is hard to imagine how a prolonged war in Ukraine and now Southern Russia could lead to large areas needing attention? The way the danger of radiological damages has been ignored or downplayed by some parties could leave the impression that they would not mind a wide and extensive uninhabitable exclusion zone, leading to reduced food production, and probably many lost lives.
4) In the following article, the Belarussian president is reflecting on the purpose of the the Kursk incursion and what might happen if Russia responded with nuclear weapons:
18 Aug, 2024 09:33
Ukraine pushing Russia to use nuclear weapons - Belarus
Kiev may have launched its Kursk incursion to provoke a drastic response by Moscow, President Alexander Lukashenko believes
Ukraine's incursion into internationally recognized Russian territory looks like an attempt to compel Moscow to use nuclear weapons, which would irrevocably damage its image globally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said.
In an interview with Russia-1 aired on Sunday, Lukashenko warned that Kiev's operation in Kursk Region - the largest cross-border assault by Kiev since the outbreak of the conflict - posed enormous risks to global security.
"The danger is that this kind of escalation on the part of Ukraine is an attempt to push Russia into asymmetric actions, for example, the use of nuclear weapons," the Belarusian leader said, adding that such a move would be a PR bonanza for both Kiev and its Western backers.
"Then we would probably have hardly any allies left. There would be no sympathetic countries left at all," he noted, explaining that this reaction would be based on the universal aversion to the fallout that could be caused by nuclear weapons.
Lukashenko also responded to statements by Ukrainian officials that the Kursk incursion was aimed at improving Kiev's diplomatic position for possible talks with Russia. This plan is "a classic, but it does not work in a struggle against a great empire that has not even begun to fight in earnest," he argued, adding he was sure that the Ukrainians would eventually be expelled from Kursk Region.
According to its current nuclear doctrine, Russia can deploy its nuclear arsenal only "in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it or its allies, and also in case of aggression against Russia with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said on several occasions that there is no need to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine campaign. Moscow has warned that it may change its nuclear doctrine, but said that any changes would be in response to what it perceives as escalatory moves by NATO.
Many people in Western Europe appear to ignore the potential of the current conflict to affect their lives even more than the Russia sanctions and the depleting of state funds to finance the NATO proxy war in Ukraine has already done. Will that change?
Let that serpent drown in misery of harm reciprocated with Justified Retribution.