This week as Russia again targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with more missiles, Ukrainian officials moved to power down reactors within some of the nation’s nuclear plant network.
Ukraine’s nuclear power stations need round-the-clock electricity to prevent reactors from melting down.
But the under-fire Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear station – which was again rocked by shelling last weekend – cannot be made safe by this measure alone.
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Since the early months of the war, the station – the biggest of its kind in Europe – has found itself bombarded almost to the point of disaster, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Both Russia and Ukraine blame each other.
But while the threat of Russian nuclear escalation in the form of tactical or thermo-nuclear weapons has continually stalked the conflict, many Ukrainians, like Ilyas Verdiev, believe the Kremlin will first engineer a nuclear disaster at Zaporizhzhia.
Why? Because he believes it will afford Russia plausible deniability and at the same time elevate the war beyond the plight of Ukraine and its citizens alone.
“There are talks about the nuclear threat again in terms of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant,” explains Ilyas in the latest episode of the Sky News Ukraine War Diaries podcast.
Ilyas in Kyiv
“It’s been constantly shelled and they want to blame Ukrainians for this kind of fake shelling. They basically want to start negotiations on a different level, putting Ukraine aside and start negotiations with NATO.
“But playing and using the nuclear plant, which is really huge, is really a bad idea. I don’t think we all understand the consequences of any explosions that can happen in the middle of Europe.”
It’s now more than 28 years since a reactor ruptured at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine – an accident so devastating, clean-up work at the site has decades to run.
Located less than 100km from the capital, the disaster continues to cast a long shadow over Kyiv and its citizens.
A nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine narrowly misses being hit by missiles
“We have the legacy of Chernobyl,” continues Ilyas. “We know how it how it works. We know how it influences the surroundings and the environment.
“There are lots of people who have cancer, and it is considered to be a consequence of the Chernobyl disaster.
“So the nuclear station at the moment is the point of blackmailing and threatening, and escalation of the conflict. And it’s not the first time that nuclear station in the region takes the headlines.
“It’s been always there. So they’ve been swinging back and forth, trying to threaten the world, threatening Ukrainians.”
He adds: “If that happens, that means that they did it and they will get anything to blame Ukrainians for that.”
To listen to Ilyas’ diary in full click here to listen to the latest episode of Ukraine War Diaries – Ghosts of Chernobyl, going south & grave phone calls.
