Russians could blow up nuclear plant to halt Ukraine’s forces, Zelensky warns

With Russia’s war on Ukraine going poorly, Zelensky says Ukraine is prepared for a possible disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Russia’s foreign ministry accused Kyiv of ‘systematic infliction of damage’ to the plant and warned of the possible fallout from a catastrophe there

Ukraine war

POLITICO

Published: 10:26pm, 9 Jul 2023

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed concern that Russia is planning to destroy the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant because its war with Ukraine is going so poorly.

Speaking via a translator in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”, Zelensky said: “Can we, while analysing this, think that Russia is planning a local explosion in order to stop Ukrainian operations on the battlefield? Yes.”

He said of the Russians: “If they are going to lose more initiative than they have lost at the moment, they will make some additional steps in order to make the entire world be afraid of the global nuclear disaster and halt all military actions on the battlefield.”

Ukrainian emergency response personnel take part in exercises to prepare for a possible attack on the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. Photo: EPA-EFE

Russia’s foreign ministry on Sunday accused Kyiv of “systematic infliction of damage” to the Zaporizhzhia plant and warned of the possible fallout from a catastrophe there. In the ABC interview, Zelensky said Ukraine is prepared for a possible disaster there.

Zelensky said he was not particularly concerned that Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin may be back in Russia after leading an aborted rebellion against the authority of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“As of today, he has become a political figure,” he said of Prigozhin. “And this, to me, must have been his primary objective.”

He also said that he was not worried about Prigozhin possibly resuming command of the Wagner Group or bringing some fighters back into the war, given that those soldiers have been unable to defeat Ukraine’s forces so far.

How Wagner’s Prigozhin turned from Putin pal to critic of military

Speaking before the start of a Nato summit that will concern itself at least partially about the war, Zelensky said Ukraine remains adamant that will not yield any territory to Russia to end the war, including Crimea, which was seized in 2014.

“No territory,” he told host Martha Raddatz.

Ukraine’s president also said he did not see former president Donald Trump’s assertion that he could end the war in a single day as realistic, given that Trump did not attempt to fix things between Russia and Ukraine during his presidency.

“It seems to me that the sole desire to bring the war to an end is beautiful,” Zelensky told Raddatz. “But this desire should be based on real-life experience. Well, it looks as if Donald Trump had these 24 hours once in his time. We were at war. Not a full-scale war, but we were at war. And as I assume, he had that time at his disposal. But he must have had some other priorities.”

Zelensky also said he hopes Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive can gain speed.

“All of us we want to do it faster because every day means new losses of Ukrainians,” he said.