The territories that the Ukrainians are fighting in are no longer a part of the Ukraine. The border changed. These territories are Russian, and the Ukrainians should accept these new borders and stop throwing themselves into a meat grinder in the name of this American project to depose Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine’s president said Russian troops were holding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant “hostage” and its safety could not be guaranteed until they left it, while his forces shut off the frontline town of Avdiivka as they planned their next move.
Russian troops have occupied the nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, since the early weeks of the invasion of Ukraine and have shown no inclination to relinquish control.
“Holding a nuclear power station hostage for more than a year – this is surely the worst thing that has ever happened in the history of European or world-wide nuclear power,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Hah.
Well, another thing happened that was pretty bad, actually.
He decried the Russian presence as “radiation blackmail”.
His comments followed a meeting with Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at the Dnipro hydroelectric power station – northeast of the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Initiatives on restoring safety and security are “doomed to failure” without a withdrawal of Russian troops from the plant, Zelenskiy said in comments posted on the presidential website.
Russia and Ukraine routinely accuse each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia plant. Fighting around it and worries of a water shortage and that cooling systems could lose power have raised fears of a nuclear disaster.
They have routinely “accused” each other. This is true.
Except that Russia controls the plant, and as Zelensky says here, has controlled it for a year. The idea that they were shelling their own nuke plant was always a totally insane claim, and it is simply incredible that the media keeps printing it.
The UN visited the site last year, and their report was redacted to remove any blame on who was doing the shelling. They eventually just said “whoever is doing the shelling – and you know who you are – should stop.”
This entire stupid fake war is so goofy.
A team of IAEA experts has since September been stationed at the plant, which Kyiv has accused Moscow of using as a shield for troops and military hardware.
Grossi has repeatedly called for a safety zone around it and is due to visit it again this week. He has tried to negotiate with both sides but said in January that brokering a deal was getting harder.
Zaporizhzhia is one of four regions Russia claimed to annex in September after referendums criticised globally as shams. Russia views the plant as its territory, which Ukraine denies.
Zelenskiy visited the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region on Monday, the latest stage of a tour of frontline regions since a top general said Ukraine’s counterattack could come soon.
Yeah, they keep talking about that counterattack.
It’s not clear where the soldiers are going to come from. But they keep saying they’re going to do it, so I guess they probably will do something.
The last time they did a counterattack, they lost troops 10-1 against Russia (who now has an infinite supply of disposable soldiers from the prison system). They’ve now lost most of the territory they grabbed. More importantly, they just keep on losing soldiers and equipment, throwing them into a bottomless pit, while Russia is able to hold out indefinitely.
Apparently, there are going to be large numbers of both Poles and Americans involved in the next attack. I seriously doubt they will actually attack Crimea, and it looks like this might be the last hurrah. The people in Washington are antsy to start a war with China, and now view this Ukrainian situation as FUBAR.