Putin likely to use Ukraine power plant in sick game of nuclear blackmail, warn experts

dailystar.co.uk:

Putin is “likely” to exploit an under-siege nuclear plant in Ukraine in a sick game of nuclear blackmail, military experts have warned.The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, located near the frontline of the bloody battle for the eastern European country, is Ukraine’sbiggest and earlier had triggered fears it could melt down in a similar way to the infamous disaster at Chernobyl in 1986.Russian forces kidnapped the plant’s director-general Ihor Murashov in a worrying development on September 30 last week, with the man remaining in an unknown location.READ MORE: Brit captured by Russians in Ukraine 'wants to go back and fight' after being freedNow, experts from the Institute for the Study of War have warned the move is “likely” an attempt from the brutal invader “to assume legal responsibility for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant”.They wrote: “Russian authorities will likely seek to exploit their control of the ZNPP… “To pressure the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to legitimise the illegal Russian annexations of occupied Ukrainian territory by coercing it to acknowledge Russia‘s legal control over the ZNPP.” Terrified experts have warned the bloody Russian military – who stand accused of committing morbid war crimes in Ukraine – should not be in control of a nuclear power.

Energoatom president Petro Kotin stressed: “His detention jeopardizes the safety of Ukraine and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.