Russia has been resorting to ever more worrisome behavior in Ukraine of late, as their unwinnable war continues into its tenth month.
Without some radical escalation, Russia will be forced to keep retreating their goalposts if they wish to claim any sort of victor. And, conversely, any escalation from the 15,000 or so war crimes they’ve already committed would be a de facto invitation for the world to get involved and Russians to rise up against Vladimir Putin.
And so the Kremlin continues to make not-so-subtle threats in the direction of some of Ukraine’s most dangerous locations.
The Ukrainian atomic energy agency accused Russia on Monday of flouting nuclear safety by sending a “kamikaze” drone over part of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant in the Mykolaiv region just after midnight.
Energoatom said the Iranian-made Shahed drone had been detected at 00:46 early Monday over the station and said it was calling on the international nuclear community to protect atomic sites from the risks of war.
“This is an absolutely unacceptable violation of nuclear and radiation safety,” Energoatom wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
This is not the first time that Ukraine’s nuclear power plants have been in the crosshairs of the Russians.
Invading Russian forces currently occupy another Ukrainian nuclear power plant, the Zaporizhzhia complex, Europe’s largest, near front lines in Ukraine’s southeast. Talks are ongoing to establish a safety zone around the plant.
Both sides have accused the another of shelling the Zaporizhzhia site and Ukraine has said Russian forces are pressuring its Ukrainian staff, including through violence, to sign contracts with a subsidiary of Russia’s atomic agency.
There are concerns that Russia could stage a false flag attack on the plant to turn the conflict into an atomic one, with the US and NATO having already warned the Kremlin about the consequences of such action.
