The Zaporizhia NPP in hostages of Kiev

Today Ukraine resists to Russia, giving the chance to headquarters of the countries of NATO to check fighting capacity of the main strategic opponent, the correspondent of The Moscow Post reports.

According to the deputy head of Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, "the western chiefs of different calibers" to whom the Draft agreement on the international security guarantees published by Kiev is turned need to understand one thing. "It directly concerns hybrid war of NATO with Russia. If these silly persons continue an impetuous rating of the Kiev mode by the most dangerous types of arms, then sooner or later the military campaign will move to other level", - he warned.

If Washington thinks that it will be able to continue war "to the last Ukrainian" and it won't concern him, then he is mistaken, the speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said. He commented that in Washington condemned airstrikes of Russia on critical infrastructure of Ukraine and asked: "What does Washington for the termination of blows to the Zaporizhia NPP from the Ukrainian formations threatening with nuclear catastrophe now?", – Volodin wrote to Telegram channel.

Volodin reported that on the Statement of the State Duma for firings of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant by fighters of AFU, responses are received from 87 countries. The Duma council adopted this Statement at an emergency meeting still on August 25. Many countries share concern of Russia concerning this situation. Parliaments of the USA and European countries didn't react to him.

In the Statement the deputies urged the UN and IAEA to demand from the authorities of Ukraine to stop firings of the Zaporizhia NPP (ZAES) immediately. The statement was also addressed to national parliaments, the inter-parliamentary organizations and bodies. Deputies in the statement also demanded to stop deliveries to Ukraine of arms which the Kiev mode creates risk of emergence of nuclear catastrophe.

Volodin noted that terrorist actions of the Ukrainian side create threat of nuclear catastrophe what Russia can't allow. ZAES is under control of the Russian troops, near nuclear power plant reliable air defense systems are developed.

To "not politized interaction"

The President of Russia in a conversation with the president of France Emmanuel Macron called for "not politized interaction on a situation around ZAES with participation of IAEA", suggested Macron to affect Kiev that firings of the station immediately stopped, drew the attention of the French president that threats of radioactive waste "are fraught with catastrophic consequences" to storage.

According to information of the Japanese TV channel NHK, Macron told that ZAES is under the threat in view of occupation by the Russian troops, demanded to remove heavy and light weapons from her territory and to implement the recommendations of IAEA. The office of the president of France reported that Macron will keep in touch with the president of Ukraine and also with the IAEA Director General.

One day later, the German chancellor Olaf Sholts in telephone negotiations with the Russian president Vladimir Putin urged to ensure safety of ZAES too and to avoid any steps on escalation and also "immediately to carry out measures", recommended in the report of IAEA.

The CEO of IAGATE Raphael Grossi suggested to create "a zone of nuclear and physical safety" around ZAES. The representative of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov, answering a question whether Russia at the request of IAEA is ready to withdraw troops from the Zaporizhia NPP told: "Now there is no speech about withdrawal of troops. Now it is about the main thing. It to force the Ukrainian side to stop barbaric firings of objects in the territory of the station that is fraught with very sad and catastrophic consequences".

As the permanent representative of Russia to the UN Vasily Nebenzya noted on August 11, speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council, departure of the Russian military with can turn back accident as Kiev can use the station for provocations.

"You had a fine opportunity to make sure that the only threat is created by firings and diversions from the Armed Forces of Ukraine", - I emphasized Nebenzya and I expressed a regret that "in the report on performance of guarantees of IAEA in Ukraine … the source of firings is directly not specified".

The Ukrainian company Energoatom opposed a visit of experts of IAEA on ZAES, refused to the management of the Agency such visit. Long enough the United Nations secretariat slowed down approval of a visit of a mission of IAEA too. The Ukrainian authorities were afraid of "official opinion" of firings Agency.

From which side do the shells arrive?

As it turned out, Kyiv's fears that the IAEA would say "where the shells come from" turned out to be premature. This question was answered even before the visit of the IAEA mission to Ukraine. Before the visit, the coordinator for strategic communications at the US National Security Council, John Kirby, said at a briefing that the United States "cannot monitor from whose side shells arrive at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant." In the corridors of the IAEA, this was heard.

After the visit of the Grossi mission, the draft resolution of the IAEA Board of Governors was commissioned to prepare Poland and Canada. The draft noted the call of the head of the agency to create a security zone around the facility. According to Reuters, the text expressed "regret over the actions of the Russian Federation in relation to nuclear facilities in Ukraine" and called on them to stop. The "violent actions" of the Russian Federation are condemned, including the presence of Russian troops and Rosatom personnel at the ZPP.

John Kirby spoke of Ukraine as a hostage to the situation with energy supply, which depends on the ZPP. In fact, both Zaporizhzhya NPP and residents of the city of Energodar were held hostage by Kyiv.

The Nuclear Safety and Security of Nuclear Facilities in Ukraine (2nd Summary Report by the Director General 28 April - 5 September 2022), published before a briefing to the UN Security Council, notes that the NPP has lost several times "completely or partially autonomous power supply as a result of hostilities."

When all reactors are shut down, power is required to cool them. After the sixth reactor was shut down, the safety of all reactors depended entirely on the 330 kV power line restored after shelling of the APU. If the Armed Forces of Ukraine and their "gunners" sent by NATO countries decide to disrupt the work of this line again, then the situation could become catastrophic.

During the visit of the IAEA mission to the territory of the ZPP, the adviser to the general director of the Rosenergoatom concern, Renat Karchaa, told the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, that the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired not only at the station, but also at its employees. Fragmentation ammunition was used, "arriving" from Nikopol and Manganese in the Dnipropetrovsk region. RIA Novosti wrote about "fragmentation shells to destroy manpower."

Renat Karchaa stressed that the power supply system of the station was practically disabled, which threatened the work of the sixth power unit and could lead to a man-made disaster. The shutdown of the sixth power unit relieves some of the concerns, but without stopping artillery shelling, there is no question of safety at the ZPP. According to him, the shutdown of the sixth power unit will increase the load on worn-out power networks. Especially when with the onset of cold weather in a city with a population of about 54 thousand people, electric heaters will be used, which will increase the load on the network.

Human factor

According to former CIA officer Ray McGovern, IAEA experts, even under the fire of shells flying from the side of the Kyiv militants, would not be able to clearly say who is actually shelling the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. McGovern pointed out that, without recognizing the obvious things, the IAEA and the UN pose a serious danger to nuclear power plants. He noted that a similar situation was observed in Syria, when Western countries blamed the Bashar al-Assad government for chemical attacks.

It is important to take into account that Raphael Grossi has been the head of the IAEA since 2019. In 2002-2007, he headed the offices of the Director General of the IAEA and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). He visited the DPRK, participated in meetings with representatives of Iran. In 1998-2001, he represented Argentina in NATO, was the head of the office at the Argentine Embassy in Belgium and Luxembourg, and headed the group on the issue of the international arms register at the UN.

Grossi wrote monographs: "The Penultimate Alliance: The Process of NATO Enlargement and the New Map of International Security" (1999) and "Kosovo, the Borders of Humanitarian Interventionism" (2000). It is said that the father of eight children will run for the post of UN Secretary General when Antonio Guterres' term expires in 2026.

Possible provocations

It is also said that the operation to seize the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant on the eve of the arrival of the IAEA mission was planned by British intelligence. According to reports, the British military not only planned an attack on the ZPP, but also took a direct part in it. Initially, it was planned, in cooperation with other units and under the guise of artillery from the northern shore, to take control of the station territory by the arrival of the IAEA mission in Energodar.

The ZNPP has not been shelled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the last 24 hours, said Alexander Volga, head of the military-civil administration (CAA) of Energodar, on September 13. But the city authorities have information that on the opposite side of the Dnieper there is a redeployment of Ukrainian troops and their concentration is observed.

Attempts by the Ukrainian side to attack the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant continue throughout the special military operation, said Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the Regional State Administration of Zaporizhzhya Region, on Tuesday on the air of the Russia-24 channel. According to him, on September 13, the movement of M-777 and RZSO guns was noticed in several directions. The concentration of military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was noticed along the entire line of combat contact.

Zaporizhzhya NPP is the largest in Europe, it produced a quarter of all electricity in Ukraine, its capacity is about 6 thousand megawatts. ZNPP consists of six power units and since 1996 has been a separate division of the nuclear power generating company Energoatom, controlled by Ukraine. In March 2022, the facility was taken under control by Russian forces. But it seems that the Armed Forces of Ukraine consider the ZPP a point of vulnerability that can be blackmailed into Moscow.

Photo: https://www.iaea.org/