There is a pattern. As soon as things start to go badly for the Russians on the battlefield, they start publicly flaunting their nuclear potential.
On the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, we would like to remind you that the occupiers have been using nuclear blackmail since the very beginning of the large-scale invasion. Back in February 2022, as soon as it became clear to Putin that Ukraine was not going to capitulate, and the West supported it, the Russian leadership began to blackmail the world with its nuclear weapons.
Such actions are called exhibitionism: everyone already knows that you have something – but you do a painful need to demonstrate it publicly.
In February 2022, the invaders seized the Chernobyl NPP, where a disaster had occurred several decades before.
Due to the proximity to the border of Belarus, which provided its territory as a bridgehead for the occupying army, already on February 24, Russian troops captured the Chornobyl NPP, and the station personnel were taken hostage.
Right on the territory of the Chernobyl station, the occupiers kept their equipment, dug trenches in the forest, and Russian soldiers used the premises of the nuclear power plant as a recreation base.
Instead, the workers worked without rotation for more than 20 days, slept on their work chairs and communicated with the family in Slavutych secretly – they called using landline phones. When the employees of the station began to lose consciousness at work, the Russians agreed on a rotation. Thus, workers from Slavutych were forced to go into occupation in order to replace exhausted colleagues.
On March 9, 2022, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that it no longer receives data from the nuclear material monitoring system at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. at the same time On March 9, 2022, Energoatom reported that the Chernobyl NPP and all nuclear facilities in the exclusion zone remained without power supply.
Then Ukraine and the Western world were afraid for the first timethat the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as a result of the occupation may be greater than in 1986.
However, on March 31, 2022, the Russians left the Chernobyl nuclear power plant back towards Belarus. Having looted the stationbut leaving it to work safely.
Unfortunately, at the same time, the occupiers took 103 Ukrainian National Guardsmen with themwhich as of February 2024 still remained in captivity.
After the Russians forced the workers to sign a “no-claims” declaration, the armed occupiers, in his spirit, went to rob: they stole computers, even kettles, coffee makers, containers with property that was at the nuclear plant. They also ransacked a hotel located next to the NPP. Toilets were not reported in this particular case.
On April 2, following the retreat of the Russians back to the territory of Belarus, the Armed Forces returned the Chornobyl NPP without firing a single shot.
How did the liberation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant happen?
By “a gesture of goodwill” of the occupiers, which happened through general rout of the Russians on this part of the front.
Let’s emphasize once once more that there were no battles at the nuclear facility itself. The enemy was forced to retreat due to the general situation.
Russian by force forced leave the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
A week following the Chornobyl NPP, on March 4, 2022, the occupiers also seized the Zaporizhia NPP located in Energodar. The difference with the Chernobyl NPP is that the ZNPP and the surrounding area, in contrast to Kyiv Oblast, are still under occupation.
Just like at the time at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the Russian army used the nuclear power plant to store military equipment and deploy its servicemen. Just like at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, employees of ZNPP became hostages. We also remember stories regarding placing explosives at the station.
In both cases, the nuclear facility is held hostage by the Russians a constant source of blackmailaimed at the whole world.
How regarding this nuclear blackmail and in general to fight once morest Russian nuclear exhibitionism?
Need an advantage on the battlefield in general.
It is simply necessary to force Russia to retreat – not from individual objects, but from the occupied territories as a whole. This, of course, requires more weapons. More artillery. More drones. More tanks. More planes. More air defense, and so on.
For the safety of everyone – both Ukraine and the world – it is necessary to achieve a general retreat of the occupiers from the region.
Using the example of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, we have already seen that the general advantage over the enemy on the front line forces the terrorist to simply retreat without a fight from the dangerous object that this terrorist has taken hostage.
The Russian occupiers, as we have already seen more than once, are not the kind of “suicide bombers” who will stand at individual objects until the end. Because this is an army of coercion, not ideology.
Just like in Chernobyl. Just like in Izyum and Kupyansk. Like on the island of Zmiiny. Just like in Kherson, which was “with Russia forever“- the Russian occupiers in the event of a general defeat will accept “difficult decisions” and will make another “gesture of goodwill”.
But it will not happen by itself.
Achieving a complete retreat of the occupiers from Ukraine is in the interests of the security of the whole world. This is possible only with our superiority on the battlefield. To force the Russians to leave, a sufficient number of weapons is necessary. After all, these invaders only understand force.
StratCom of the ZSU
* The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the agency
