MELITOPOL, June 22. /TASS/. Ukraine's special services may stage provocations at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) ahead of the NATO summit to be held in Vilnius on July 11-12 in case their counteroffensive fails, Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the 'We Are Together with Russia’ movement, told TASS.
Commenting on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's statements that Russia was allegedly preparing a terrorist attack on the Zaporozhye NPP with the release of radiation, the politician said: "Such attempts (Ukraine provocations - TASS) can be made." Rogov added that Kiev may try it "in the near future, before the NATO summit on July 11-12, to sell it to the alliance member states as a success and continue to receive weapons and money". He pointed out that the likelihood of such sabotage "is great, given the shallowing of the Kakhovka reservoir, which resulted in the reduction of its area to the old Dnieper riverbed". "It is much easier to cross such an obstacle," he explained.
"This is due to the preparation of Plan B in case Plan A fails, which provides for successes in the Zaporozhye area as part of a counteroffensive. If Plan A fails, then the scenario of a provocation at the Zaporozhye NPP will be implemented: an attempt to seize it, shell it or destroy it," Rogov opined.
According to the politician, this is why Kiev is now so actively trying to put the nuclear power plant back on the information agenda. "Note that the main authors of the statements are Zelensky and [head of Ukraine's military intelligence Kirill] Budanov. The idea is simple: one should not look for logic in the fact that Russia is going to blow up a super-expensive facility worth billions of dollars on its own territory with its own employees - Russian citizens who signed contracts with the current management of the nuclear plant. The louder and more absurd the lie, the more people will believe it," Rogov said.
Zelensky said earlier that he had alerted the US, Brazil, India, China, Europe, the East and Africa about an alleged terrorist act prepared by Russia at the Zaporozhye NPP involving the release of radiation. The video message was posted just hours after it was announced that IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi would arrive in Russia on June 23. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov slammed Zelensky's statement "yet another lie."