Ukraine’s President Zelensky has once again been warning the public and the West that Russia is planning to stage some kind of disastrous nuclear fallout event centered on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest. The claims from Ukrainian top officials have been persisting for weeks at this point, but have grown louder in the last several days, as Americans are busy with July 4th festivities.
“There is a serious threat because Russia is technically ready to provoke a local explosion at the station, which could lead to a [radiation] release,” Zelensky claimed days ago at a joint news conference in Kyiv. Ukrainian intelligence is at the same time this week saying Russia’s military is reducing its presence there and has told staff to relocate to Crimea.
The Guardian on Saturday cited Ukraine’s intelligence arm, the GUR, to say that “several representatives of Russia’s state nuclear energy agency, Rosatom, have already left” and further that “Ukrainian employees who stayed at the plant and signed contracts with Rosatom had been told to evacuate by Monday, preferably to Crimea, it said.”
