Putin won’t stop using spectre of nuclear disaster to terrorise Ukraine

Ukraine’s President Zelensky has warned of a possible attack on Europe’s largest nuclear plant, while Russia’s president has once again talked up his nuclear arsenal, writes Borzou Daragahi

Vladimir Putin has been talking up Russia’s nuclear arsenal, present and future (Sputnik/Yegor Aleev via Reuters)

The warning from Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky that his intelligence services believe Moscow is plotting a “terrorist act” to release radiation from the power plant in Zaporizhzhia is anothe chilling reminder of the spectre of nuclear disaster that has been a constant throughout Russia’s invasion.

The Kremlin has denied the accusation, but it has repeatedly used nuclear rhetoric particularly threats over the use of nuclear weapons. President Vladimir Putin talked up its arsenal during a speech this week, potentially prompting the Ukrainian response. It is part of what many analysts see as an attempt to try and show the West that Russia will not be backed into a corner, no matter the battlefield situation in Ukraine, particularly ahead of the annual Nato summit in Lithuania next month.

“It might all just be to impose political pressure on Nato leaders ahead of the Nato summit,” says Hanna Liubakova, a Belarusian journalist and researcher. “The aim is to weaken the West’s resolve in supporting Ukraine, and to scare the people in Nato countries, to get them to say: ‘You see what is happening? Putin escalates. We cannot support Ukraine.’