MELITOPOL, June 24. /TASS/. European leaders bear no less responsibility for the attacks on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) than Vladimir Zelensky, as they are active participants in the decision-making process regarding strikes against the power plant, former US Marine Corps intelligence analyst Scott Ritter told TASS.
"Europeans and [Vladimir] Zelensky are the same. Europe isn’t directing Zelensky, Europe has absorbed Zelensky, Zelensky is part of Europe. They need Zelensky. They need Ukraine to justify their continued existence. So, it’s one and the same. I hold Europe to the same level of accountability that I hold Zelensky. They are active participants in the decision to strike the [Zaporozhye] Nuclear Power Plant," Ritter said, answering the question why European leaders do not stop Kiev’s attacks while understanding possible consequences of the radiation accident at the ZNPP.
At the same time, the US, as well as Europe, is fully aware of what can happen as a result of strikes by the Ukrainian military on the nuclear power plant, the analyst noted.
"We know that in the United States we had the Three Mile Island incident [in 1979] and we also had other nuclear accidents. And we’re fully aware of the consequences of civilian nuclear power plant’s suffering a catastrophic accident, and the potential spread of radiation. So, you can’t claim that the United States is ignorant of the consequences of doing damage to the safety mechanisms of a nuclear power plant. And yet, Ukrainian government strikes the Zaporozhye plant on a daily basis," Ritter said.
He emphasized that Ukrainian military strikes on the ZNPP "is proof that the United States is, at best, ambivalent about it, at worst, directing these strikes. I don’t know why." Ritter added that striking the nuclear plant is "against the law," and international law "makes it very clear: you cannot strike a nuclear power plant, there is no exception."
In the last couple of months, Ukrainian forces have significantly intensified shelling in the area of the ZNPP and its satellite city of Energodar. Since the beginning of the year, two power plant workers died and six more were injured. On May 30, a Ukrainian fiber-optic combat drone struck the machine hall of Power Unit No. 6 at the plant. The adversary has repeatedly struck the plant’s transport depot and buses transporting plant workers, as well as the infrastructure of the station and Energodar, where plant workers’ families live. Thus, Kiev is trying to destabilize the situation and intensify psychological pressure on staff, the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant press service said.