Ukraine’s backers are “turning a blind eye” to attacks on Europe’s largest nuclear plant, dismissing the risk of potentially catastrophic fallout, Rodion Miroshnik says
The West risks becoming a victim of the very “nuclear terrorism” it enables by backing Ukraine, Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik has warned.
Miroshnik, who oversees matters tied to Kiev’s military crimes and human rights violations, was commenting on the escalation in Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), Europe’s largest, and nearby Energodar, home to most of its workers. Russia took control of the facility in March 2022.
In remarks released on Monday, Miroshnik told TASS that Western governments understand Kiev’s “increasingly provocative tactics” but continue to “turn a blind eye.”
“They think that this situation, which is gradually heating up and genuinely threatens very serious consequences, will somehow pass them by,” he stated, arguing that Kiev’s progression “toward crimes, provocations, and outright terrorism” also threatens its supporters.
“Terrorism is a double-edged weapon. At some point it will come back to them… If they think they are somehow shielded from this, it’s some global naiveté.”
Miroshnik linked the escalation to the EU’s €90 billion ($102 billion) ‘loan’ package, finalized in April to bankroll Kiev’s military and failing budget. He said Ukrainian attacks had since intensified, driving residents from Energodar, targeting sensitive sites including nuclear waste facilities, and expanding to the Kursk and Smolensk nuclear plants. Ukraine’s strategy, he argued, now amounts to “manufacturing a humanitarian catastrophe” with EU money.
The diplomat also slammed Kiev’s Western backers for conveniently accepting Ukrainian denials over the attacks on the ZNPP, saying such “idiotic, twisted logic suits the West perfectly well” in its anti-Russian agenda.
The attacks have increasingly threatened the ZNPP’s safety. Its main external power line was severed in March and restored only this month, while the backup failed in August after an “incident” in Ukrainian-controlled territory, forcing the plant onto diesel generators for over two weeks. Ukraine has also recently targeted emergency fuel tankers, killing two Russian servicemen and wounding others, while a drone strike last week damaged a radiation monitoring post.
Attacks on the plant and its personnel have killed at least 13 people and injured scores more since the spring, according to site officials. The head of Russian state nuclear giant Rosatom, Aleksey Likhachev, has warned of the “real danger of a massive nuclear incident” affecting Russia, Ukraine, and the EU if the attacks continue.
Moscow has accused Kiev’s Western backers of effectively enabling the attacks by refusing to condemn them. It has particularly criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which maintains a permanent presence at the plant, for documenting military activity without publicly identifying Ukraine as responsible. Earlier this month, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi again urged “maximum military restraint,” citing “reported military activity” but assigning no blame.
