Russia continues militarization of ZNPP, plans strikes on Ukrainian power substations – ISW
Russian occupation troops continue militarization of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in the occupied town of Enerhodar of Zaporizhia region and intend to accuse the Ukrainian side of attacks on radiation-hazardous facilities, according to a report of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) for February 20.
“The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) falsely claimed on February 19th that Ukrainian officials are planning false-flag attacks at hazardous radiation facilities in Ukraine to accuse Russian forces of conducting indiscriminate strikes on these facilities in violation of the Convention on Nuclear Safety ahead of the 11th emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly on February 22,” the report reads.
There are also reports of calls for the Russian military to systematically strike at electrical substations located outside Ukrainian nuclear power plants in order to initiate emergency shutdowns at the stations. “The Russian MoD may be starting an information operation aimed at setting informational conditions for conducting such strikes and the potential radiological incidents that could result from systematically depriving the facilities of energy. The attacks … would not likely generate radiological incidents, but attacking anywhere near nuclear power plants always carries some risk of such incidents,” the analysts say.
At the same time, it is noted that the previous strikes of the Russian Federation on critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine do not imply systematic attacks on power supply facilities related specifically to nuclear power plants.
“The Russian MoD’s statement may also be attempting to set informational conditions for a potential radiological incident at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in light of reports that Russia’s draining of the Kakhovka Reservoir may be putting the ZNPP’s cooling system in peril,” the ISW said.