The Times of London on Friday published a report detailing a failed Ukrainian attack on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) that took place in October 2022.
About 600 Ukrainian special forces soldiers launched the attack from the north bank of the Dnieper River and attempted to cross the water to reach the ZNPP. As the attack was launched, HIMARS rockets provided by the US hit Russian positions on the southern bank of the river near the power plant.
When asked by The Times if the US had provided targeting data for the HIMARS before the raid, a Pentagon source said the US provided “time-sensitive” intelligence to Ukrainian special forces. “We do share information with them, but they are responsible for the selection, prioritization, and ultimate decisions to engage threats,” the source said.
The dangerous assault on the ZNPP, which is Europe’s largest power plant, failed as the bulk of the Ukrainian soldiers could not cross the river due to Russian fire. A small group of soldiers made it across and engaged in an hours-long firefight on the outskirts of Enerhodar, the town where the plant is located.
The raid took place on October 19, and Russian media at the time quoted Russian military officials who said an attack on the ZNPP was thwarted. Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said the assault involved “37 boats and craft with Ukrainian troops to land the assault force, including 12 heavy and 25 light vessels.”
Russia accused Ukraine of attempting other similar attacks on the ZNPP. In September 2022, Russian officials said about 250 Ukrainian troops attempted to land near the plant, but it was thwarted. At the time, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were stationed at the ZNPP.
Russian forces took the ZNPP in the early days of Russia’s invasion and have controlled it since March 2022. Rafael Grossi, the head of the IAEA, visited the plant last week and warned against attacks on nuclear facilities.
“It is very, very important that we agree on the fundamental principle that a nuclear power plant should not be attacked under any circumstances,” he said. “It shouldn’t be used to attack others, likewise. A nuclear accident with radiological consequences will spare no one.”
This business is really p-ing me off. The US needs to mind its own business and let the Ukrainian people decide what they want to do with their own country.
True.
Russia should do likewise.
Ukraine cozying up with its big neighbor’s enemies IS Russias business. Just as Russian missiles in Cuba was America’s business in Oct. 1962!
I thought most people with an anti war attitude were against stationing nukes on Cuba but equally against invading Cuba, not to mention applying sanctions for what 60 years following that crisis. Are you now implicitly justifying a US invasion of Cuba?
If Ukraine had been planning or preparing nuclear missile platforms in Ukraine then I would have understood perhaps even have backed a Russian action to eliminate these, but that was AFAIK not even one of the countries that have joined NATO since 1991 have nukes on their territories.
There are different antiwar people. Some are better informed, some are less informed (or dishonest). For example, you mentioned Russian nukes stationed in Cuba, but didn’t mentioned that those nukes in Cuba was Russian reaction to American nukes stationed in Turkey. Once Americans removed their nukes from Turkey, Russia removed nukes from Cuba.
No I mentioned Russian plans to station nukes in Cuba, the difference between stationing nukes in Turkey 1500 km from Moscow and placing them in Germany 1600 km from Moscow is so little as to make no difference – hence the US placing nukes in Turkey was not lowering the warning time for a first strike.
And for the record the Russians never stationed nukes in Cuba, but it is true that they agreed not to do so against the US promising to remove the ones in Turkey about a year or so later.
These are fairly irrelevant observations compared to the main one being that invading a country to prevent potential future nukes from being stationed when there is no evidence that such placement is in the works is just not what anyone against war should be for.
Ukraine was entered during this Russian special operation to stop atrocities against civilians when it became clear tu Russia that deserting Ukrainian troops fighting against Ukraine in the border lands could not defeat US armed and directed attacks in the Ukrainian civil war.
Before the incursion and the referendums, Putin said nyet to those areas in Ukraine having the referendum and coming back to mother Russia. When it became apparent that Kiev forces planned a great assault on those areas, Russia acted, granted the referendum and return, then invaded.
The “referendum and return” came after, not before, the invasion.
There were referendums in 2014 in Donetsk and Lugansk to join with Russia. Putin declined accepting these regions into the Russian state, much to the disappointment of these regions. The Minsk agreements were structured around the concept that Donetsk and Lugansk were Ukrainian territories and that their desires for recognition of their ethnic identities be recognized and protected under Ukrainian law. This never came to pass. Fourteen thousand dead in eight years later, these regions became Russian. The dream at long last realized.
No, in 2014 they had only the referendums about the independence from Ukraine. Russia recognized their independence a couple of days before the invasion. The referendums for joining Russian Federation they had simultaneously with Kherson and Zaporozhie oblasts in 2022.
Correct. Pre-invasion.
There were two referendums. The first was in 2014.
In 2014 Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts had referendums about the independence from Ukraine. Putin tried to discourage them but they wouldn’t listen. Then the leadership of those two former Ukrainian oblasts expressed the wish to join Russian Federation. The referendums for joining Russian Federation happened in September 2022.
Before the invasion, Russia recognized the independence of those two republics and signed with them agreements for mutual military help. So, Russia acted within the international law.
The civilian deaths caused by the civil conflict in Ukraine has been going down very significantly and was now at a very low level – the Ukrainians were not and still are not n a position to take the areas of the Donbas that the insurrectionist held in December 2021 – so your reasoning is clearly not the one that correlates with facts on the ground.
The Donbas conflict was on the verge of sputtering completely out, which would have left Putin without a pretext to do what he’d wanted to do, and had been trying to do through proxies, for eight years. He had to act when he did, lest peace break out.
Nope. The AFU had built up an armed force to take the separatist regions by force using the NATO trained Ukrainian army. The intense shelling in February was a prelude to the attack. If Putin had wanted these regions, he could have easily taken them in 2014.
OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Daily Report 39/2022 issued on 19 February 2022
In Donetsk region, the SMM recorded 591 ceasefire violations, including 553 explosions. In the previous reporting period, it recorded 222 ceasefire violations in the region.
In Luhansk region, the Mission recorded 975 ceasefire violations, including 860 explosions. In the previous reporting period, it recorded 648 ceasefire violations in the region.
The SMM corroborated reports of a civilian casualty in government-controlled Marinka, Donetsk region.
The Mission followed up on reports of damage to a school in government-controlled Vrubivka in Luhansk region.
The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske. It recorded ceasefire violations (including explosions) close to the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska and Zolote.
The Mission monitored the operation of critical civilian infrastructure.
The SMM continued to follow up on the situation of civilians, including at four entry-exit checkpoints and three corresponding checkpoints of the armed formations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The Mission monitored a gathering in Kyiv.
The SMM’s freedom of movement continued to be restricted, including at two checkpoints of armed formations in Donetsk region.*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This conflict wasn’t dying out. It was about to explode.
This one surprised me. Never thought you would decide to distort the account. You make it seem that the people running the country had nothing but warm regards for the Easterners. That is just a flat out lie.
Peace? Now that’s funny.
Exactly my point!
“”that invading a country to prevent potential future nukes from being stationed when there is no evidence that such placement is in the works””
well you just described the lead-up to the 2nd invasion of Iraq by uncle sam
Yes and that invasion was very much not justified – I would have hoped we could agree on that!?
Nowhere did MvGuy insinuate that Amerikkka “should have” invaded Cuba.
MvGuy wrote:
I.e. if the US was justified in preventing the Russians from stationing nukes in Cuba then Russia is justified in its action – can you tell me how that is not justifying Russia’s invasion and hence also justifying a US invasion of Cuba.
Otherwise Russia is at the very least dramatically overstepping its allowed reaction and MVGuy should have indicated the issue.
Oh for f*ck’s sake 🙄
There really is no doubt that NATO has intended to establish a foothold in Ukraine since long before the Euromaidan coup. Russia sided with the separatists in the civil war that followed, at least in part, to deny NATO that foothold.
In a sense, the Russian strategy backfired. It gave Biden/Blinken the excuse they sought to establish a foothold by means of a proxy war. But keeping NATO’s foothold is beginning to look untenable.
It is flatly wrong to think that the independent republics (now part of Russia) continued to be part of Ukraine after 2014. It’s also nonsense to believe that the separatists who established the independent republics view Russia as an invader.
NATO did not plan to establish a foothold anywhere NATO only ever accepts countries that apply to be members and then only some of them, and only if they are democratic – NATO would not have accepted Ukraine as at the very least Hungary would have objected – thus the notion that NATO was planning to expand into Ukraine is not supported by any rational thinking observer.
The mechanism is less important than the result. Russia wanted an agreement to keep NATO out of Ukraine and Biden called that demand a non-starter. The POTUS evidently thought that there IS a very good chance that Ukraine will become part of NATO.
Absolutely true – Putin wanted to officially get the US to also violate the Budapest Memorandum, a treaty which guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty (as well as territorial integrity) – the US would not agree to do so.
Not at all necessary for the US to act this way, if the US would want other states to be willing to negotiate to surrender nuclear weapons then reneging on essential parts of the biggest such deal struck would look really bad – and the US already has a dubious reputation eroding it further would not be in the interests of the US.
We had been planning nuclear missile platforms in Ukraine, along with the other countries we enticed to join NATO, move East counter to agreements not do do so. For countries entering into agreements with the U.S. I would advise that they plan ahead for the day the U.S. abrogates those agreements. It is what we do.
This may be a valid point in a different context. We are not talking here of the rights and wrongs of the war. But planning an assault on European largest power plant is insane.
I had no illusions of Ukraine’s ethics as they shelled civilian areas in Donbas for eight years before Russia’s intervention. And killed over 15,000 civilians. Unimportant people, clearly from our righteous point of view,
But the idea of shooting their way into a nuclear power plant is insane. And the mere idea that US was aware of this plan, even assisted in its execution. — does not make me feel good about people who are supposed to be responsible for OUR security.
As if we do not have already enough of dying oceans, imbalances resulting in continent sized algae growth, depriving oceans of oxygen, killing ocean life and splashing the stinky result on our shores. Yes, let us spill more radioactive matter in waters, soil and air.
Sure, no problem. As Fukushima still disposes millions of gallons of radioactive water into oceans. Hundreds of thousands of years worth of problems.
Where is the disconnect?
Excellent, Bianca, the most insightful comment I’ve read in a long time.
Hear hear!
It would be nice if we (the U.S. of A.) would stop the nonsense of desiring to be the hegemon of the world.
But we don’t control Russia or Putin. We have nominal Democratic power over our respective nations.
Though I haven’t seen a lot of democracy offered to us about this war yet. Anyway, I refuse to cooperate in hating people on the other side of the planet when fellow Americans are also responsible.
Russia is reacting to NATO aggression. There’s a big difference.
Right. They should just ignore hideously-painful history, Bush’s promise, the subsequent nitrotoluene-fueled expansion of NATO eastward, US radars and missiles in Poland and Romania, Nudelman’s regime-change HS, the incineration of Russian speakers in Odessa, hostility to Russian speakers, Azov nutjobs, NATO’s arming and training of Ukrainians, the duplicity of the Minsk “accords,” the killing of 14,000 Donbas citizens, AFU preparations to attack Donbas in January 2022, Blinkenfarb’s arrogant refusal to negotiate a reasonable new security arrangement for central Europe proposed by Russia, US anti-Russian propaganda to the moon (including about Georgia), unrelenting unreasonable US hostility, Russiagate, and the dishonest, malevolent “assistance” to Russia post 1991.
Zaporozhie nuclear power plant was several times hit by the artillery shells. The cooling system was damaged. The artillery attacks happened also in time when the inspectors were there. Of course it was done with the participation of US. Ukrainian/NATO military forces tried both, to capture it and to create an ecological disaster, and they did it repeatedly.
Launching a military attack to capture a huge, nuclear power plant?
What could go wrong?
“We do share information with them, but they are responsible for the selection, prioritization, and ultimate decisions to engage threats,” the source said.
Of course they are. But we only share information with them if it’s threats that we want them to engage. They can have peace talks too but only when we have decided that Russia has been “weakened” to our liking.
One of the most inept, power-mad administrations in US history, playing with nuclear Armageddon as if it were a God-damned board game, steered by an imbecilic cartel of the ethically dead.
Last year we were insisting that it was Russia shelling the plant.
There is no such newspaper as “The Times of London”. There is a newspaper called “The Times”, which is published in London. All the other newspapers which include “Times” in their names are cheap knockoffs. They distinguish themselves by adding a place name, and have names like “The Irish Times”, “The Times of India”, “The New York Times”, “The Straits Times”, and so forth. Quite understandably, people speaking in a local context will often refer to their local rag simply as “The Times”. But when it is necessary to make it clear that it is the original newspaper that is being referred to, the best formula is: “The Times” (London).