391–400 of 894 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One side was unarmed civilians blocking the road to the plant for couple days until Russians started to shoot and wounded several civilians.
In other conflicts those are known as human shields.
Aside from the obvious "knocking the power plant out to cripple the city" argument there are probably better ways to do this than blowing it up. For example, controlling the area and literally turning it off. It seems wild, even by Russian doctrine, to do such a thing.
On the other hand, the Ukranian military has every reason to "salt the earth" with a potentially critical reactor in order to do as much damage to a Russian occupation as possible. Are the Ukranians this crazy? Well, to do this they wouldn't have to be much more crazy than Russians shelling it.
Something doesn't smell right here. In the article there is this quote:
> In an emotional speech in the middle of the night, Zelenskyy said he feared an explosion that would be “the end for everyone. The end for Europe. The evacuation of Europe.” “Only urgent action by Europe can stop the Russian troops,” he said. “Do not allow the death of Europe from a catastrophe at a nuclear power station.”
The undertone of this seems more threatening than fearful. Especially given Zelensky's overall response to NATOs lack of response. Additionally, Zelensky isn't much less corrupt than putin (https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/freedom-i...).
I do not intend to sound like a Russian apologist here but rather be the devil's advocate. This doesn't make sense inside either country's war doctrine. It seems more like it's being used as propaganda by one side or the other. Very suspicious indeed. I don't think Russian conscripts are stupid enough to blow a reactor to turn it off. I also don't think Ukraine is stupid enough to use this to salt the earth. Yet, I find the official story fairly hard to believe.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't surprise me if they believe that considering the ridiculous stream of fantasy being spewed out of Russian leader and media.
Every country has its propaganda and lies, but they're generally couched in half-truths. It's truly remarkable how the Russian flavor of misinformation sounds just like a pathological liar making up wild bullshit that nobody could possibly take seriously. That's been a tradition for decades, as far as I know.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t intentionally causing a nuclear meltdown during war already nuclear war?
Not in the same sense people usually mean "nuclear war". Swapping many ICBMs is a lot more deadly than letting one NPP go critical.
Just nitpicking, but AFAIK nuclear power plants already "go critical" whenever they're operating (according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_(status) "Criticality is the normal operating condition of a nuclear reactor, in which nuclear fuel sustains a fission chain reaction.")
This has been a real reckoning for me, as somebody who has historically been very pro-nuclear. Quite simply, humanity is too good at screwing things up to harness such a fundamentally powerful and dangerous source of power. It requires a commitment to long lasting peace and stability that we're just not capable of.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can’t speak to why you’ve been downvoted, but it might be worth considering the incentives to fight aren’t the same between the “sides”. One is fighting to survive an attack by the other. It’s difficult to maintain safety measures while people are trying to kill you.
> One is fighting to survive an attack by the other. This statement, while true, changes denotation depending on the scale at which you view this conflict. If you view it as a conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the existential threat is to Ukraine. If you view it as a conflict between Russia and NATO, the existential threat is to Russia.
Firefighter have access now: https://twitter.com/bnonews/status/1499555239351005194?s=21 https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1499555095817728023?s=21 "According to Andrey Tuz, spokesman of the press service of the nuclear power plant, there is no threat of radiation spread."
A nuclear incident is pretty much their only (unlikely) hope to get some kind of foreign or NATO involvement.