The Russian military is barricading the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in anticipation of the large-scale Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and one of the largest in the world, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been at the center of fighting in the south for months.
Barricading a Nuclear Power Plant
The British Military Intelligence has released satellite imagery showing that the Russian military is barricading the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The satellite imagery shows several sandbag fighting positions on the roofs of the nuclear power plant’s reactor buildings. The imagery is from March, which suggests that the Russian forces have been preparing to defend the nuclear power plant for a good while.
“Russia has likely constructed these positions because it is increasingly concerned about the prospects of a major Ukrainian offensive,” the British Military Intelligence assessed in its latest estimate of the war.
Barricading Europe’s nuclear power plant isn’t the best development for those who fear a nuclear disaster. The CCTV images from the firefight to take the nuclear power plant in March 2022 are still fresh. Then, Russian tanks were firing shells against the nuclear power plant’s infrastructure in their attempt to root out the Ukrainian defenders.
“However, direct catastrophic damage to the reactors is unlikely under most plausible scenarios involving infantry weapons because the structures are very heavily reinforced,” the British Military Intelligence added.
However, there have been several instances where artillery fire landed very close to the reactors. It only takes one errant shell to create a nuclear disaster similar, if not worse, to the one that took place in Chernobyl in Soviet Ukraine.
Although the Russian military has been in control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for close to 14 months, these satellite images are the first indication that the “actual reactor buildings [are] being integrated in tactical defense planning.”
Russia’s Ukraine Nuclear Goals
The Kremlin had big plans for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant before the war invasion.
The Russian military managed to capture the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the opening days of the invasion after a brief (and scary) firefight with the Ukrainian forces. After capturing the nuclear power plant, the Russian military essentially turned it into a military base.
And that was one of the Kremlin’s primary goals. The Russian leadership had planned for the Zaporizhzhia power plant and other nuclear power plants to serve as bases for the Russian military to barrack troops and store equipment. The Kremlin banked on the possibility that the Ukrainian forces wouldn’t attack any Russian forces garrisoned within the perimeter of the nuclear power plant out of fear of causing a nuclear disaster.
But the Kremlin also wanted to capture Zaporizhzhia and other nuclear power plants to control Ukraine’s power grid (60 percent of Ukrainian electricity comes from nuclear power), thus controlling the economy and people.
Finally, the Kremlin wanted to capture and control the Ukrainian nuclear power plants as a way to prevent direct or indirect interference in the conflict by the West.
The Ukrainian military tried to capture the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant a few months ago. In a nighttime special operations raid, the Ukrainian military attempted to surprise the Russian garrison.
Ultimately, however, the Ukrainians failed, and Russian forces remain in control of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
MORE: The F-35 Now Comes in Beast Mode
MORE: Why the U.S. Navy Tried to Sink Their Own Aircraft Carrier
Expert Biography
A 19FortyFive Defense and National Security Columnist, Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.
