Why the West doesn't care much about the APU strikes on the Zaporozhye NPP — opinion

The Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the Zaporozhye NPP, thereby threatening the whole world with a repetition of the Chernobyl disaster. What is Kiev trying to achieve, why is the West so calm? The questions Pravda.Ru The Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor Alexander Mikhailenko, answered.

— Why does the West allow Zelensky to attack a nuclear facility if Europe will suffer first in the event of a radiation release?

— As I understand it, nuclear scientists believe that this chance is not very great, because the Zaporozhye station is in cold shutdown mode. And a working reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But this is the technical side of the matter. But as for the political one, I think that a significant part of Western politicians say that victory should be won on the battlefield, many active Western politicians hear bellicose rhetoric. The other side of the matter (I think it should not be discounted) — this is the position of Kiev, which seems to be blackmailing the West: "If you do not provide us with the necessary military means and materials, we can arrange a nuclear rain for you."

— What are the goals pursued by the leadership of the Kiev regime, expanding the attack on the border areas of Russia? Quite recently, everyone started talking about the beginning of the peace process, about the need for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, and now there is a direct invasion.

— I see several goals here. The West allocates very significant money, therefore, it is necessary to report, there must be some results. And Ukraine is trying to find vulnerable suitable places on the contact line, which is about two thousand kilometers. I think that Ukrainians are very eager to achieve military achievements, because the situation is not very good with the morale of the Ukrainian troops...I think there is another goal, perhaps the Ukrainian leadership is considering it. All wars end with peace negotiations based on the real balance of forces on the line of contact, where and how the front line runs. Ukrainians may need territories for exchange to strengthen their negotiating position.

— During the conduct of hostilities, non-standard moves are used. A serious question arises: Ukraine is bordered not only by Kursk and Belgorod region, but also by other regions of Russia. How does the evacuation of the population from potentially dangerous conflict zones work? Were the lessons of the Kursk invasion taken into account by the city administration and the federal authorities?

— There are data on the number of evacuees, 76 thousand people left the Kursk region, 11 thousand from one district of the Belgorod region alone. This is a fairly large mass of the population, it's a lot of work. We are talking a lot now about the military, about the mobilization economy, about providing the front with the necessary means. But the work with the population should be improved by our authorities.

Evacuation is a voluntary matter based on an understanding of the situation: people must understand the situation and make the necessary decisions for themselves. We need to work with the population so that they understand that this is not a peaceful time, that the circumstances are different today.

— You will probably agree that it is necessary to develop a system at the federal level that would serve as a model for such emergencies: when everyone understands what they should do, which area they should be personally responsible for, and how to quickly organize reception points and refugees, respectively, vehicles and an alert system.

— This set of measures should be thought out in advance, training is needed so that the system is already worked out and people understand how to act.

— What is the Ukrainian leadership trying to achieve by destroying its most combat-ready troops? And if that happens, what happens next?

— Indeed, in fact, the elite of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is aimed at this direction. This indicates that the Ukrainian leaders considered the Kursk direction to be very important, they attach great importance to it. This is necessary in order to show some achievements and get further funding, which is becoming increasingly difficult. Fatigue from the Ukrainian conflict is growing in European countries, and presidential elections are taking place in the USA.

As for the combat potential, it is absolutely obvious here that if the most combat-ready units are actually thrown to slaughter, then who will fight?

— Now let's talk about the role of the West. The statements of the State Department that they do not know anything about the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine turned out to be hypocritical through and through. They stated that NATO weapons would not be used during strikes deep into Russia — they are now being actively used in Kursk region. The West has crossed all the "red lines". How can the Russian leadership respond to Western countries for their unfriendly, provocative actions?

— The issue is very important both politically and militarily. We have an answer to this question from the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova. The answer, she said, would be tough, and it would not be long in coming. There may be some secret moves here, so we can assume some asymmetric measures here. How this is implemented depends on the wisdom of our politicians and bosses. But the fact that there will be an answer and it will not be long to wait for it is absolutely certain.