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Russia is playing a dangerous nuclear game in Ukraine [1]
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Date: 2022-08-01
View of the nuclear reactor complex across the Dnipro River. Use of nuclear weapons is not the only nuclear threat from Russia.
A report in The NY Times tells how Russia is using a nuclear reactor complex as a shield.
Russia has turned Europe’s largest nuclear power plant into a fortress
..Nikopol, controlled by the Ukrainians, lies on the west bank of the Dnipro River. On the opposite bank sits a gigantic nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — that the Russian Army captured in March. The Russians have been firing from the cover of the Zaporizhzhia station since mid-July, Ukrainian military and civilian officials said, sending rockets over the river at Nikopol and other targets. It is, in effect, a free shot. Ukraine cannot unleash volleys of shells in return using American-provided advanced rocket systems, which have silenced Russian guns elsewhere on the front line. Doing so would risk striking one of the six pressurized water reactors or highly radioactive waste in storage. And Russia knows it.
Details from Wikipedia:
Needless to say this is not a good situation.
It’s one more example of the Russian disregard for unfortunate consequences from their actions. It’s a valuable asset and it would be astonishing if Russian forces weren’t in place to protect it — but using it as a base for attacks on Ukrainian forces is an invitation to really bad outcomes.
This is one more reason that efforts by Ukraine to take out Russian supply depots and supply lines to deprive Russian artillery of shells is critical. If the guns can be silenced for lack of ammunition, that would make it possible for Ukraine to effectively neutralize it without attempting some kind of assault.
An attempt to encircle the complex and starve the occupiers out would depend on the ability of Ukraine to advance into the area and take it back — against what Russia might threaten to do to to the complex to deny it to Ukraine. You might think Russia would have learned from the fiasco at Chernobyl, but there have been few signs of Russia learning anything to date.
Again from The NY Times:
..Residents have been fleeing Nikopol because of the dangers of both shelling and of a potential radiation leak. And those who remain feel helpless, as if they are targets in a shooting gallery. “We are like condemned prisoners who must just stand still and be shot at,” said Halyna Hrashchenkova, a retiree whose home was hit by Russian artillery. “They shoot at us, and there is nothing we can do.”
Let’s hope no one does something irretrievably stupid…
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/1/2113815/-Russia-is-playing-a-dangerous-nuclear-game-in-Ukraine-but-not-the-one-you-d-first-think
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