World Weekly丨The Conflict Between Russia and Ukraine Is Constant The situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant under fire is complicated
As one of the focal points of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Ukraine is attracting global attention. This week, a team led by IAEA Director General Grossi personally arrived at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant under artillery fire to carry out assessment and safeguard activities, giving the outside world more confidence in the safety of the plant. But at the same time, the Ukrainian side announced a high-profile "counter-offensive", and the situation on the battlefield became more complicated.
On 31 August, a delegation of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Zaporizhia, the capital of Zaporizhia Region in Ukraine.
According to TASS, the working group was personally led by IAEA Director General Grossi, and 13 other experts came from 10 countries, including Albania, China, France, Italy, Jordan, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Serbia and the Republic of North Macedonia, without the participation of Russian and Ukrainian experts, nor representatives of the United States and Britain.
This is the first time that the International Atomic Energy Agency has sent a working group deep into the Ukrainian theater, escorted by UN staff in the field of logistics and security.
Un Secretary-General Spokesman Diarik stressed that all parties to the conflict have a responsibility to protect the security of the Panel.
IAEA Director General Grossi: The IAEA is entering the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, where, as you know, we are on a very important mission, assessing the actual situation there and doing everything we can to help stabilize the situation.
The Zaporižian Nuclear Power Plant, located in the city of Energodar in zaporizhia Oblast of Ukraine, is the largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine and one of the largest in Europe, generating 25% of Ukraine's total electricity generation.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in March this year, the Russian side took control of the city of Energodar. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that in order to prevent the leakage of nuclear and radioactive materials, Russian soldiers need to be sent to defend the nuclear power plant. At the same time, the Russian side agreed to continue to be responsible for the operation and management of the nuclear power plant by employees of the State Nuclear Power Company of Ukraine. But many Western media reported that the Russian army occupied the nuclear power plant.
Since mid-July, nuclear power plants and their environs have been frequently attacked by artillery and drones. The Russian side said that it was the Ukrainian staff in the nuclear power plant who leaked information on the location of personnel and equipment in the nuclear power plant area to the Ukrainian army, and the Ukrainian army created the attack accordingly.
Russian soldiers: Radioactive isotopes are stored there, about 20 to 30 meters away.
Decades later, the haze of nuclear leaks still hangs over Chernobyl. The international community is also acutely aware that "playing with fire" on the safety issues of the Zaporizhian nuclear power plant is extremely dangerous and is likely to trigger another nuclear disaster.
ICRC Director-General Maldini: There should be no firefights in and around a facility like zaporizhia, because we know what the consequences will be, and if there is an unfortunate disaster, there can be no humanitarian response.
Ukrainian nuclear experts predict that a catastrophic accident at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant could be 10 times more serious than the Chernobyl accident.
Local residents: We survived the Chernobyl nuclear accident, which was a catastrophe, but we survived. In my opinion, the threat now is 100%. The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant has six reactors, not one.
This week, Zaporizhia authorities have begun distributing iodine tablets to local residents to prevent radioactive hazards and conducting nuclear evacuation drills.
On August 29, Ukraine's State Nuclear Power Company (Energoatom) said in a social media post that according to the day's wind forecast, in the next three days, in the event of a serious accident in a power unit at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, radiation clouds will cover southern Ukraine and parts of southwestern Russia. At that time, the European continent may thus sound the nuclear alarm.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Borrelli: There is currently a nuclear gamble at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which is very dangerous.
French President Emmanuel Macron: The situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is obviously the most worrying thing for us.
On August 21, the leaders of the United States, Britain, France and Germany held telephone talks and called on Russia and Ukraine to maintain military restraint.
However, for the belated attention and attention of the West, the Russian side has continuously exposed and criticized the United States as the initiator and behind the nuclear power plant crisis.
On August 28, a drone was shot down by the Russian side over the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, and its trajectory showed that its target was a warehouse where nuclear waste was stored.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Konashenkov: The Ukrainian attack drone shot down by the Russian army landed on the roof of Special Facility No. 1, no one was injured, and no serious damage to the building was caused.
The Russian Satellite News Agency quoted the Russian military as saying that it was a U.S.-made drone.
On August 29, when the Zaporizhian nuclear power plant was shelled again and a large hole was blown out of the roof of the nuclear fuel storage facility, Vladimir Rogoff, an official of the civil and civilian administration of Zaporizhia Oblast, pointed out that it was the M777 howitzer provided by the United States to Ukraine that was fired.
Russian political analysts pointed out that the Ukrainian side mainly aimed at the nuclear power plant for two purposes, one is to intimidate the residents of Zaporizhia and force them to flee; The second is to obstruct the International Atomic Energy Agency's expedition.
Russian Defense Minister Shoigu: Yesterday, the Armed Forces of Ukraine opened fire not only on the Zaporizhian nuclear power plant, but also on the course of action of the IAEA expert group.
The spent fuel storage facility at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant contains 4,000 spent fuel rods containing huge amounts of radioactive material. Russian nuclear expert Alexei Ampilogov pointed out that spent fuel is the ideal raw material for making nuclear dirty bombs, and once the IAEA personnel enter the nuclear power plant to investigate, they will find that the actual situation is inconsistent with the information previously reported by the Ukrainian side.
In the early morning of 1 September, the vicinity of the gates of the Zaporiži nuclear power plant was quiet, awaiting a visit from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Soon after, however, there was another shelling near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which was urgently switched to emergency mode.
IAEA Director General Grossi: We are taking action. Based on what we know so far, there has been an increase in military activity, including this morning and in the last few minutes. But after weighing the pros and cons, so far we haven't stopped, and we're now heading to [nuclear power plants].
At 6 p.m. on 1 September, Director-General Grossi and most of the members of the Panel of Experts walked out of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, completed the first expedition and made a preliminary assessment.
IAEA Director General Grossi: Even though I was only inside for 4 or 5 hours, I saw a lot of things, and my colleagues were still inside, and I did a comprehensive tour, going into the units, visiting different areas like emergency system generators.
The Panel inspected several damages to the plant, including the remains of an unexploded shell, and Grossi announced that the International Atomic Energy Agency would send several experts to remain at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant for a long time.
Analysts believe that the IAEA's expert panel is limited to "professional and technical assessments" and does not clarify the mandate of responsibility for military operations, so it is unlikely to play the role of "mediator" of conflicts, but the presence of experts at nuclear power plants can alleviate tensions to some extent, and even hope to make nuclear power plants a safe zone.
IAEA Director General Grossi: There are two teams of technicians, one of which stays at the plant until Sunday or next Monday.
Reuters noted that during the IAEA expert mission, a large number of Russian soldiers were protecting the perimeter.
Russian defense said that on the same day, Ukrainian soldiers tried to land in the Energodar region where the nuclear power plant is located, but they were suppressed by Russian fire and were unsuccessful. Two Ukrainian groups of about 60 men also tried to land along the Kakhovka Reservoir, 3 km northeast of the plant, and were discovered by the Russians and most of them were wiped out.
With the arrival and presence of IAEA experts, confidence in the safety of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has increased.
But at the same time, in southern Ukraine, more brutal frontal confrontation has begun.
On August 29, after receiving several rounds of U.S. military aid for "blood transfusions," the Southern Ukrainian Combat Command announced that it had launched a counteroffensive in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, saying that it had broken through the first line of defense of the Russian army and occupied several villages.
Located at the westernmost tip of the Russian-Ukrainian front, Kherson is the only Ukrainian provincial capital currently under Russian control, only about 100 kilometers from Crimea, and is an important strategic location. Public opinion analysis pointed out that the reason why the Ukrainian side chose to start the counter-offensive from here is because if it wins, it will have a strong symbolic significance.
Maria and her husband, Costia, who live on the front lines of the conflict and make a living from animal husbandry, have been nervous about the recent frequent shelling and the screams of jet planes overhead.
Maria, a local resident: I hid in the house, every time my heart was about to jump out, when the plane flew by I would scream loudly, I was scared, God bless us.
In recent weeks, the Ukrainian army has focused on the bridge in the Kherson region, with the aim of cutting off the Russian logistics supply route in Ukraine. However, most military experts believe that the Ukrainian army adopts a "wear and tear strategy", it is difficult to achieve major victories, and the counter-offensive may evolve into a long war of attrition.
Spokesman for the Southern Ukrainian Combat Command, Humeyuk: The Russians may continue to try to build ferry or pontoon crossings, but the entire deployable area is under our fire control.
The Ukrainian side's claim was refuted by the Russian side.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on August 30 that the Russian army destroyed a large amount of military equipment on the southern front and disintegrated the Offensive of the Ukrainian Army in many directions.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Konashenkov: Our army acted effectively, destroying 48 tanks, 46 infantry fighting vehicles, 37 other armored fighting vehicles, 8 pickup trucks equipped with heavy machine guns, and eliminating more than 1,200 Ukrainian soldiers in one day.
Stremusov, vice chairman of the military and civilian administration of Kherson Oblast, bluntly said that the counter-offensive in Kiev was "ineffective", no one advanced nor retreated, and it was the Ukrainian army that "had an illusion".
Kremlin spokesman Peskov: (Russian) Special military operations are proceeding in an orderly manner according to the existing plan, and all objectives will be achieved.
On September 1, Russia's satellite news agency released a video of a selfie of a Ukrainian soldier after his defeat.
Ukrainian soldiers: Half a platoon of people was lost in two days, either dead or wounded. We had a mortar, and those idiots on the helicopters who couldn't even fly up to them to see where the shots were fired. This is the war now.
On August 29, the Russian Defense Ministry issued a communiqué saying that since the special military operation against Ukraine, the Russian army has destroyed a total of 276 Ukrainian warplanes, 148 helicopters, 1832 unmanned aerial vehicles and 370 air defense systems.
Tass news agency quoted Russian Air Force sources as saying that Ukraine's former air forces - MiG-29, Su-27 and Su-25 qualified pilots - have actually been wiped out by the Russian army. In order to continue the combat mission, the Ukrainian side had to dispatch cadets from the Kharkov Military Academy of the Ukrainian Air Force who had not completed their studies.
According to TASS, the Pentagon is currently recruiting former Afghan fighter pilots for the Ukrainian Air Force, who once served in the Afghan government forces, traveled to the United States after the Taliban regime came to power in 2021, and after being recruited by the Pentagon, they will undergo training in California for a period of time before entering Ukraine through Poland.
Before Ukraine announced the "southern counteroffensive", according to CNN, the United States also helped the Ukrainian army to carry out a "war-gaming" (war-gaming) to help the Ukrainian army understand the level of troops that need to be deployed in different situations, and suggested that the Ukrainian army limit the scope of the counter-offensive and avoid excessive expansion into multi-line operations.
The so-called "counter-offensive" chosen to carry out a so-called "counter-offensive" from Krivorrog and Nikolayev in the direction of Kherson is also partly considered that there are few forests and open terrain, and the United States can conduct space reconnaissance of the area and provide information and data for the Ukrainian army.
Richard Clarke, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, believes that the recent military operations of the Ukrainian army and the results of the use of "Haimas" rocket artillery strikes are indispensable to the US Special Operations Command. According to Clark, representatives of the U.S. Special Operations Forces have been training Ukrainian servicemen since 2014 to fight Against Russia.
In the view of Russian officials, the Ukrainian side chose to counterattack at this time because it was "instigated by the West." Previously, the Washington Post had publicly questioned that the United States spent billions of dollars on military aid and did not see the action of the Kherson front; The "Politicians News Network" also twice issued a question about "where is the Ukrainian counter-offensive?"
Russian Defense Minister Shoigu: Its only purpose is to create an illusion in the minds of Western planners that the Ukrainian armed forces are capable of launching a counteroffensive.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has lasted for more than half a year, and on the surface it is a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, but in fact it is a protracted war of attrition between Russia and the West.
For Ukraine, whether the West will continue to support and how long it can support it is still marked with a question mark.
This week, the US newspaper Capitol Hill commented that if Ukraine wants to survive, the fighting must end, and the only reasonable thing to do is to negotiate a ceasefire.
Source: CCTV News Client