Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant strikes. According to Ilmari Käihkö, a visiting researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute, both sides have a motive to attack the area.
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has come under fire.
Yesterday, several projectiles hit the area of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant again, and it happened last week as well.
Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the attacks.
Alexander Institute visiting researcher Ilmari Käihkön according to both parties have a motive to attack the area of the power plant. Independent experts have not been able to get there to investigate the attacks.
– Russia can make provocations and attack there itself, so that it can threaten Ukraine with a nuclear disaster, says Käihkö.
He points out that Ukraine is known to have carried out at least one strike in the area of a nuclear power plant at the end of July.
Ukraine has accused Russia of using the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as a military base and firing at Ukraine from there.
– It makes responding to fire extremely difficult, if not impossible.
For this reason, it is in Ukraine’s interest to have the Russian troops withdraw from the vicinity of the power plant.
There is no solution in sight
The International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA has long demanded that it be allowed to visit the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant for an inspection visit.
This would suit Russia, but it has not been successful for political reasons.
An inspection visit facilitated by Russia would mean that the IAEA would have to go to the area through Russia. It would strengthen the impression that it is a Russian nuclear power plant.
The fight over Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is playing with fire, the consequences of which are above all the Ukrainians.
– It does not comfort me in the least that a Finnish expert says that the effects will not spread to Finland, but they can spread within a radius of hundreds of kilometers to Ukraine. We are talking about catastrophic consequences here.
According to Käihkö, the demand of Ukraine and the United States to demilitarize the area would be a fair way for all parties to reduce the risk of a nuclear accident.
However, Russia has not the slightest interest in agreeing to it. From its point of view, it is advantageous that it can use the nuclear power plant as a defense shield, and make attacks on the territory of Ukraine from its shields, Käihkö estimates.
The nuclear power plant is also important in terms of electricity production. It produces a fifth of the electricity of the Ukrainian territory, and Russia has planned to transfer the electricity to Crimea.