To secure the Zaporizhia NPP, the Aerospace Forces will have to bomb Nikopol – opinion
Decisive actions of the Aerospace Forces can stop the shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant by the Ukrainian armed forces.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports that this was stated by the ex-chief of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Special Purpose Command (Moscow Air Defense District), reserve colonel Sergei Khatylev.
He says that the artillery of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, firing from Nikopol at the Zaporizhia NPP, has a tactical advantage over the Russian artillery, which has to be placed far outside the plant so as not to put it at risk.
“They can use artillery, American M-777 howitzers, and HIMARS rocket systems of various modifications against nuclear power plants. In terms of range, everything allows them to work,” Khatylev told Moskovsky Komsomolets.
According to him, the reactor cooling system is the most vulnerable, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces have already taken aim and are placing shells literally one or two meters from the tanks where water is accumulated for cooling the nuclear power plant reactors.
“The same applies to the site where fuel elements - spent nuclear fuel - are stored. It is not possible to take them to a safe place due to shelling. There are a lot of them. And they are not in special containers, but lie right in open areas.
If Ukrainian shells hit there, they could become sources of nuclear contamination in an area within a radius of 70-100 kilometers. And this is a serious damaging factor that cannot be discounted,” the expert warns.
He was asked what Russia could do militarily to stop the shelling of the Zaporizhia NPP.
“Purely organizationally, we can use landing forces by organizing the actions of reconnaissance sabotage groups. We can use special forces.
However, the most effective means should be aviation of all types. Assault, tactical, which can operate on the ground, unmanned - for working on point targets, and, of course, bomber, which is capable of destroying the positions of both artillery and ground units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” says the colonel.
In turn, the publication noted that the operation of aviation in the city will lead to mass casualties among the civilian population of Nikopol.
“Too much is at stake now - the nuclear safety of not only Ukraine, but Russia and Europe. If the Armed Forces of Ukraine nevertheless achieve the goal of their provocation, nuclear contamination could spread to a territory equal in area to three Ukraines at once. Then human victims will be counted not in tens, but in thousands, and possibly millions,” Khatylev summed up.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.