Rosenergoatom’s top adviser to the general director remarked that Western nations backing Kiev appear to be seeking a way to legitimize their direct involvement in the fighting in Ukraine through the incident at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. The remarks came in an interview conducted with TASS.
According to the adviser, the Ukrainian counteroffensive was slowed and Western capitals sense that the current Ukrainian leadership is not aiming to drag out the conflict. He asserted that for these powers, a Ukrainian defeat would amount to a broader strategic setback for them as well.
He noted that early on the West faced risks and that a line had already been crossed in that sense. The discussion around a potential special operation at the plant, which Western observers have warned could trigger a nuclear incident, was described as a legal route that would justify NATO’s direct involvement in the hostilities. He also argued that creating an impression of the Russian Federation as capable of carrying out a nuclear terrorist act has been a deliberate effort to shape international opinion.
On June 30, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations released a letter from the UN Security Council and the General Assembly urging Ukraine to take steps to prevent provocations at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
Earlier, physicists had calculated where such an event might be best concealed from a nuclear explosion, a point referenced in the ongoing discourse around safety, accountability, and international response to threats at nuclear facilities.