In the Ukrainian war, the danger emanating from nuclear power plants is used strategically. It also serves for advertising purposes. About playing with fire.
Explosions at the site of a nuclear power plant. A scenario that may have seemed apocalyptic until recently is gaining substance after this weekend at the latest. Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, the one in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, is said to have been shot twice in recent days. But who is responsible for the attacks and how they actually took place is difficult to say and is woven into the war propaganda on both sides.
propaganda war
Moscow and Kyiv accuse each other of bombing the installation in southern Ukraine. In the first weeks of the war, Russian troops took control of the facility. It is still controlled by Ukrainian crews. Operator Energoatom announced that the nuclear plant had been shut down in “emergency protection mode”. As a result, two of the six reactor blocks are still in operation. None of them were hit, but there is still a risk of radioactive radiation and increased risk of fire, warns the energy supplier and called for the plant to be turned into a military-free zone.
The Kyiv government criticizes that the activities of the Russian military are not only exposing the people of Ukraine to danger: if a reactor is hit, the effects can be compared to those of an atomic bomb.
The Russian side, meanwhile, accuses Ukrainian troops of being responsible for the bombing of the nuclear plant and of presenting it differently to force more weapons deliveries from the West.