Ukraine could trigger 'another Chernobyl' amid Kursk incursion: Report
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An ex-US army officer said in an interview with RT that if the Kursk Nuclear Power plant is targeted, it would affect most of Europe.
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The Chernobyl nuclear plant on April 26, 2017 (AFP)
Ukraine's armed forces could trigger a nuclear disaster if they target the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant that could impact most of Europe, former US Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik warned in an interview with RT on Saturday.
Krapivnik explained the difference between a dirty bomb and a nuclear bomb, where while the former does not have critical mass or rich material, it could be used to create large-scale contamination if struck at nuclear waste.
The ex-soldier compared the incident to Fukushima or Chernobyl if the coolant in an active plant is targeted which would result in a "nuclear breakdown."
“And the fallout is going to go straight to the northwest into Europe,” he said, referring to the large effect the incident would have on Europe.
“It’s going to hit the Poles, the Germans, the Danes, the Scandinavian countries,” including the UK. “But apparently the leadership of those nations really doesn’t give a damn.”
A potential threat?
Krapivnik speculated that “if there is enough evidence” of this potential threat, it would evoke a "very large reaction” from the Russian government since the strike at the Kursk plant would make the region uninhabitable.
Russian Military Journalist Marat Khairullin reported on Friday that Ukraine is allegedly preparing to detonate a dirty bomb targeting either Russia's Zaporozhye NPP or the Kursk NPP. However, the Zaporozhye plant, which is the largest in Europe, has shut down while the Kursk power plant is operational.
A “man-made disaster in the European part of the continent” would be faced with “tough military and military-technical countermeasures," the Russian Defense Ministry said in response to Khairullin's reports. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova urged the international community “to immediately condemn the provocative actions prepared by the Kiev regime.”
The United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency have not addressed the threat while Ukraine has denied the allegations.
Ukraine striking Russia to lead to nuclear confrontation, analyst says
US President Joe Biden taking the decision to allow Ukraine to attack Russian soil using US-supplied weapons exposes the deep political confusion and disarray within the United States, veteran Defense Department analyst and retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.
"This decision is a continued sign of political disarray in Washington and within NATO leadership. The Biden administration is praying that Ukraine can continue some kind of resistance until early November," Kwiatkowski said in reference to the upcoming US election.
US President Joe Biden recently lifted restrictions on Ukraine's use of US-supplied weapons against targets in Russian territory, though officials claim that Biden made a move "only to defend the under-fire" Kharkov region against Russian forces.
"This political disarray, disorganization, and frustration have been obvious and growing as the militarily and economically weak Western coalition of the partially willing walks the tightrope of a proxy war against a nuclear power," Kwiatkowski said.
"This shift in Biden policy on Ukraine's use of US weapons inside Russia, around Kharkov only for now, is escalatory. It unleashes the Russian military as well, to bring a swift end to this war through force, rather than negotiation," Kwiatkowski said.
"A darker and just as a possible strategy by the US administration is that they wish to incite a major Russian response to the US-UK-France Ukrainian escalation of a doomed war effort," the defense analyst underlined. "Best case for Biden, he is able to oversee a nuclear crisis that allows him to cancel or suspend elections, or otherwise silence his American critics in a time of nuclear 'war,'" she added.
Kwiatkowski, however, underlined that it would backfire in the face of the United States, not in a possible nuclear confrontation but in a strategic nightmare for the US, which is through the complete collapse of the European Union and NATO. "This latest Biden decision tells us he wants more Ukrainians to die and he wants the end of Ukraine as a wholly abstract problem," Kwiatkowski concluded in her interview with the Russian news agency.
