Putin threatens Ukraine with strikes on nuclear power plants

3 October 13:11

The shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant may result in a mirror response to Ukraine. This was stated by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the Valdai discussion club in Sochi.

This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to Russian media.

“This is a dangerous game. People on the other side must understand that if they play this dangerously, they have a nuclear power plant that is still operating. And what prevents us from responding in kind? Let them think about it,” Putin said.

According to the Kremlin head, Kyiv continues to attack the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia NPP, but there are no strikes on the power plant itself. He added that ZNPP is now reliably supplied with the necessary electricity through generators.

Meanwhile, Putin complained that representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) see who is shelling the plant, but do not recognize that it is the Ukrainians.

“You asked for IAEA representatives to be at the plant, we agreed, and they are there. They refused to live in a hotel, they live right on the territory of the nuclear power plant… They can see with their own eyes what is happening, who is shooting and where the shells are coming from,” Putin emphasized.

Putin also made a number of other statements:

How Russia wanted to join NATO

“Our country… has twice declared its readiness to join NATO. The first time was in 1954, back in the days of the USSR, and the second time was during US President Bill Clinton’s visit to Moscow in 2000. “And both times we received an actual rejection from the doorstep,” Putin said. “When Clinton and I talked, he said: ‘You know, it’s interesting, I think it’s possible. And then in the evening he said: I’ve consulted with my people, it’s unrealistic now. And when is it realistic?

The president said that Western countries “could not resist the temptation of absolute power.” “Some were content to believe they had the right to teach everyone else, while others preferred to play along with the strong to avoid unnecessary problems.”

On Ukraine and the situation of the Armed Forces at the front

“The Ukrainian tragedy is a pain for both Ukrainians and Russians. For all of us,” Putin said. He agreed that if Donald Trump had been president of the United States in 2022, the conflict could have been avoided.

Almost along the entire front line, the Russian Armed Forces are allegedly “confidently moving forward,” he said. “The military occupied two-thirds of Kupyansk. Kirovsk has completely come under our control. The southern group entered Kostyantynivka… We entered Siversk, Krasnoarmeysk,” Putin said.

“Almost 100% of the Luhansk region is in our hands, with 0.13% left in the enemy’s hands. The enemy controls about 19 percent in Donetsk region. 24-25% – Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. And everywhere, Russian troops are confident, I want to emphasize this, they are holding the strategic initiative.

He named the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in September – 44.7 thousand people, almost half of them irrecoverable: “Unfortunately, we also have losses, but they are much smaller.”

“Do you understand the difference? Our guys come and sign up for the army themselves. They are, in fact, volunteers. We do not conduct any mass, let alone forced, mobilization,” the Kremlin leader added.

“The army [in Ukraine] is simple, working-class and peasant, the elite do not fight. They only send their citizens to be slaughtered, that’s all. That’s why there are so many deserters <...> We urge them to surrender, but it’s hard for them to surrender because the barrier units are killing them.”

On the supply of Tomahawks to Ukraine

“It is dangerous. Tomahawks are a powerful weapon. True, it is not quite modern anymore, but it is powerful and threatening, and, of course, it will not change the balance on the battlefield at all,” Putin said.

According to him, Russia will adapt even if Ukraine gets such weapons:

“Can Tomahawks do us harm? Yes, they can. We will shoot them down and improve our air defense system. Will this harm our relations [with the United States], in which there is some light at the end of the tunnel? Of course it will.”