Ukrainian troops are targeting an area where the Russians continue to entrench themselves in a nuclear power plant. This makes the counteroffensive much more difficult.
- In the Ukraine war, the Zaporizhzhia region is the focus of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
- Russia occupied the nuclear power plant, making it a particular challenge for Ukraine.
- Negotiations on an exclusion zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have so far failed.
- This article is available in German for the first time – it was first published by Foreign Policy magazine on May 2, 2023.
Zaporizhzhia, one of the four regions that Russia has annexed and claimed as part of the Russian Federation, is at the heart of Ukraine's strategy for the much-vaunted spring counteroffensive. The reason for the focus on Zaporizhzhia is obvious: it is located on the land corridor along the Sea of Azov, which connects Russian troops with their supply lines in eastern Ukraine from the Donbas region to Crimea.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant becomes a military challenge for Ukraine
However, it also poses a clear military challenge. The Russians are still at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, implicitly threatening a nuclear catastrophe if Ukrainian forces park on the other side of the Dnipro River and try to retake the region.
Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which provided 20 percent of Ukraine's electricity needs in peacetime, is on the front line of the war. One small action, whether intentional or accidental, could trigger a meltdown at the site, which would have devastating effects on human lives and the environment.
Even under Soviet rule, Ukrainians have been affected by such a crisis before. In April 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 60 miles north of Kyiv, contaminated millions of hectares of forest and agricultural land, poisoned fish and led to deformities in the birth of farm animals – all in addition to the devastating and direct effects on people, including thousands of recorded cancer cases.
Russia is using nuclear power plants to blackmail Ukraine into war – Zelensky fears
Russian troops occupied Chernobyl immediately after the start of the full-scale invasion last February, but evacuated the site at the end of March. During their stay, they dug trenches in the exclusion zone, which is still considered highly radioactive, imprudently exposing themselves to radiation.
Russian soldiers continue to occupy the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Ukraine's counteroffensive thus carries a nuclear risk. © Erik Romanenko/Imago
On the 37th anniversary of last month's Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned against a repetition, stating that the presence of Russian troops at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had "once again put the world in danger." He called for Russia to be prevented from using nuclear power plants to "blackmail" Ukraine, presumably as an implicit threat in the event that Ukrainian forces tried to retake the region and its most important asset.
Ukrainian experts call for recapture of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – despite high risk
Foreign Policy's conversations with Ukrainian experts suggest that they find a military operation to retake the nuclear power plant more attractive than standing idly by and waiting for disaster while Russia deploys heavy weapons and uses the sensitive facility as a military base.
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"Negotiations with a terrorist state will not lead to anything," said Oleksandr Kharchenko, the managing director of the Research Center for Energy Economics in Kiev. "The only solution is for the Ukrainian military to recapture the power plant. I'm sure they're smart enough to change the situation for the better."
The Times of London reported last month that Ukrainian forces had already attempted to retake the facility at least once, as part of an attack by special forces that withdrew after fierce resistance from the Russians.
Alina Frolova, former Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense, agreed with Kharchenko that Ukraine has every right to reclaim its territory, but added that there is no guarantee that a Ukrainian military operation can be carried out without the risk of escalating the already fragile security dynamics at the plant. "We are in the midst of a highly unconventional war. Do you think anything can be done safely? Nothing can be done safely - there is always a risk. Russia can blow up the plant."
Russia uses Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as a weapon in Ukraine war
Russian forces have stored ammunition in the turbine halls with the reactors, placed rifles on the roofs of the plant and roam with weapons near the site where radioactive material is stored, all of which pose an imminent threat to the safety of the plant, according to Petro Kotin, the president of Energoatom, Ukraine's state-owned nuclear power plant operator.
It is the first time in the history of modern warfare that a nuclear power plant has been used as a weapon by an invading power to gain the upper hand in the conflict. Steven Nesbit, a former president of the American Nuclear Society, said the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by Russian forces was "clearly a gross violation of all norms of human behavior."
The American Nuclear Society has learned that Russian forces "mined the site of the station and placed military equipment directly in the power-generating part of the nuclear power plant," Nesbit told Foreign Policy. He added that there are reportedly more than 500 Russian military personnel at the plant at any given time.
Russian soldiers torture employees of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
There are other risks to the safety of the power plant. The four main supply lines that supply electricity to the power plant were shelled from both sides during the war, cutting it off from Ukraine's power grid. Now, a separate power supply is needed to cool the reactors, but it is interrupted again and again, which increases the risk of a core meltdown. In addition, there is concern that not all the specialists required to operate the plant will be available.
Some were killed in Russia's notorious basements or underground torture cells. Nearly half of the plant's 11,000 workers fled when they had the opportunity, and many others refused to work under the Russians. Only about a quarter have signed a contract with a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's state-owned nuclear energy company, either under threat or after being lured with double pay. However, reports of torture and the arbitrariness of the Russians have created a kind of stress that is far too risky to be endured by the personnel required to operate a sensitive facility.
Kharchenko told Foreign Policy that he had personally heard of several cases of torture of employees in Zaporizhzhia. "In one case, a man was kidnapped and tortured by the Russians and never returned home. His relatives even asked the Russians to send him back, but they did not receive any information."
The shelling from both sides has further endangered the security of the plant.
Russia violates all pillars of nuclear safety – according to the International Atomic Energy Agency
Late last month, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that experts from the agency stationed at the plant had been reporting shelling almost daily for over a week, underscoring the potential dangers of "continued military activity in the region."
"When I visited the [Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant] just over three weeks ago, I saw clear evidence of military preparations in the area. Since then, our experts on the ground have frequently reported that they have heard detonations, which sometimes indicated intense shelling not far from the plant. I am deeply concerned about the situation at the plant," he said on April 21.
The IAEA has noted that Russia has violated each of the seven pillars of nuclear safety and warned that the safety of the nuclear power plant is only guaranteed for a "borrowed time". However, the IAEA could not explain why Grossi's efforts to get both Ukraine and Russia to agree to a demilitarized zone failed.
Since an agreement was reached on the passage of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, there was hope that a similar agreement could be reached on a security zone around the nuclear power plant. However, these efforts have stalled.
Protection zone around nuclear power plant fails due to "territorial aspects"
In January, Grossi had declared that he was "determined to implement the urgently needed protection zone as quickly as possible". By the end of March, however, he seemed to have given up when he said the concept had evolved and he was now focused on "protecting [the plant] itself and the things that should be avoided." Grossi did not elaborate on the reasons for the failure of his original plan. Foreign Policy turned to the IAEA for clarification, but was referred to Grossi's statement in March, in which he simply said that "territorial aspects" of this idea would raise certain problems.
The Russian news agency TASS reported in February that Russia had agreed to talk about a safe zone, but Ukraine did not want to give the Russian occupation the legitimacy given by talks on Ukrainian territory. Ukrainians believe that Russia is not serious about giving up control of the power plant, while still trying to connect it to the Russian power grid, which is controlled by Rosatom. "This is the same as the theft of Ukrainian grain, coal mines and factories. This is the Russian policy of theft, more than anything else," Frölova said. "Just like they steal people's toilets from their homes."
by Anchal Vohra, columnist at Foreign Policy.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article has been automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English in the magazine "ForeignPolicy.com" on May 2, 2023 - in the course of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to the readers of IPPEN. MEDIA portals.
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