August 26, 2022

1. On the August 25, 2022 the Council of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly (Parliament), unanimously adopted the following statement supported by the leaders of all political parties represented at the State Duma:

Statement of the Council of the State Duma on the threats arising from the shelling of the ZNPP Ukrainian military units

The Council of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation strongly condemns the ongoing shelling by Ukrainian military units of Europe's largest Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) over the past few weeks.

The critical infrastructure of ZNPP is subjected to missile and artillery strikes, the violation of nuclear and physical safety of which threatens a large-scale catastrophe in the center of the European continent. The consequences of the reckless actions of Kiev, which gives orders to shell the ZNPP, can become truly terrifying.

On the territory of the Russian Federation, Ukrainian saboteurs undermine power lines leading to the Kursk nuclear power plant.

A series of major accidents at nuclear power plants, obviously, did not teach Kiev and its NATO patrons anything. Russophobic ideology outweighs the principles of nuclear security.

It is only thanks to the dedication of the Russian servicemen who carry out their duty as part of a special military operation in Ukraine that it has been possible so far to provide the necessary protection for the main facilities of the ZNPP and the nearby city of Energodar.

The inherently terrorist attacks on the ZNPP are violations of international humanitarian law, which entails the responsibility of the states involved and politicians who give criminal orders and carry them out.

Russia constantly raises in the UN Security Council the question of the inadmissibility of strikes against the ZNPP by Ukraine. Gives irrefutable evidence of the crimes of the Kyiv regime. Calls on countries that influence Kyiv to force the Ukrainian side to immediately stop shelling.

Western countries are becoming accomplices and accomplices in crimes, supplying Ukraine with ever heavier types of weapons. By condoning the barbaric attacks on the ZNPP, the sponsors of Kyiv endanger the peoples of their countries, which is irresponsible and inadmissible.

The Council of the State Duma, which includes, among other things, the heads of factions of all political parties represented in the State Duma, calls on the UN and the IAEA, as well as national parliaments, inter-parliamentary organizations and bodies:

- give a fundamental assessment of the criminal actions of Kyiv;

- to demand from the authorities of Ukraine an immediate cessation of shelling of the ZNPP and other objects, the destruction of which carries the danger of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination and a tech man-made disaster.

The Council of the State Duma demands to stop the supply of weapons to Ukraine, with which the anti-people Kyiv regime kills and maims people, creates the risk of a nuclear catastrophe.

We appeal to the citizens of Ukraine with a request to realize the terrible consequences of the criminal and provocative policy of the Kyiv regime.

The Council of the State Duma reaffirms the readiness of the Russian side to do everything necessary to organize an international IAEA mission to the Zaporizhia NPP so that the agency’s specialists can testify on the spot that there are threats posed as a result of constant Ukrainian attacks on the nuclear power plant, which are fraught with tragic consequences for all mankind.”

Moscow, August 25, 2022

Original in Russian

Заявление Совета Государственной Думы об угрозах, возникающих в результате обстрелов украинскими военными формированиями Запорожской атомной электростанции

Совет Государственной Думы Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации решительно осуждает продолжающиеся в течение последних нескольких недель обстрелы украинскими военными формированиями крупнейшей в Европе Запорожской атомной электростанции (ЗАЭС).

Ракетно-артиллерийским ударам подвергается критически важная инфраструктура ЗАЭС, нарушение ядерной и физической безопасности которой грозит масштабной катастрофой в центре Европейского континента. Последствия безрассудных действий Киева, отдающего приказы об обстрелах ЗАЭС, могут стать поистине ужасающими.

На территории Российской Федерации украинские диверсанты подрывают линии электропередач, ведущие к Курской АЭС.

Ряд крупных аварий на АЭС, очевидным образом, ничему не научили Киев и его натовских покровителей. Русофобская идеология перевешивает принципы ядерной безопасности.

Только благодаря самоотверженности российских военнослужащих, выполняющих свой долг в рамках специальной военной операции на Украине, до настоящего времени удается обеспечивать необходимую защиту основных объектов ЗАЭС и близлежащего города Энергодара.

Террористические по своей сути нападения на ЗАЭС являются нарушениями международного гуманитарного права, что влечет ответственность причастных государств и политиков, которые отдают преступные приказы и их исполняют.

Россия постоянно поднимает в Совете Безопасности ООН вопрос о недопустимости ударов по ЗАЭС со стороны Украины. Приводит неопровержимые доказательства преступлений киевского режима. Призывает страны, влияющие на Киев, принудить украинскую сторону к немедленному прекращению обстрелов.

Соучастниками и пособниками преступлений становятся страны Запада, снабжающие Украину все более тяжелыми видами вооружения. Попустительствуя варварским атакам на ЗАЭС, спонсоры Киева ставят под угрозу народы своих стран, что безответственно и недопустимо.

Совет Государственной Думы, в состав которого входят в том числе руководители фракций всех представленных в Государственной Думе политических партий, призывает ООН и МАГАТЭ, а также национальные парламенты, межпарламентские организации и органы:

-  дать принципиальную оценку преступным действиям Киева;

- потребовать от властей Украины немедленного прекращения обстрелов ЗАЭС и других объектов, разрушение которых несет опасность радиоактивного, химического и биологического заражения и техногенной катастрофы.

Cовет Государственной Думы требует прекратить поставки на Украину вооружений, которыми антинародный киевский режим убивает и калечит людей, создает риск возникновения ядерной катастрофы.

Обращаемся к гражданам Украины с просьбой осознать страшные последствия преступной и провокационной политики киевского режима.

Совет Государственной Думы подтверждает готовность российской стороны сделать все необходимое для организации международной миссии МАГАТЭ на ЗАЭС с тем, чтобы специалисты агентства могли на месте засвидетельствовать наличие угроз, создаваемых в результате постоянных украинских атак на атомную электростанцию, чреватых трагическими последствиями для всего человечества.

Москва, 25 августа 2022 года

2. AFU again shelled the ZNPP

What are the reasons behind such statement issued by the Council of the Russian State Duma?

The Russian Ministry of Defense said Ukrainian forces have inflicted several strikes on the territory of the station in recent days, using, in particular, drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. In most cases, the attacks are repelled by air defense systems, but some shells hit the infrastructure and the area of the nuclear waste repository, which raises the risk of radiation leaks. Another method is to destroy Kakhovskaya Hydropower Station and to leave ZNPP without water used as a cooler. Such HPS has been attacked by Armed forces of Ukraine or AFU several times in July and August 2022.

In the Zaporozhye Region, nearly 30 shellings per day were made by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, of which on August 23, 17 strikes were aimed at ZNPP, the head of the military and civil Administration there reported.

Security systems have been activated at the plant after a power outage, which temporarily left the facility without electricity, members of the Administration in the Ukrainian region have claimed.

The plant has since been connected to an alternative source of power, according to officials. The blackout is said to have been caused by massive wildfires in the area, which were started by Ukrainian shelling, theу said.

Fires, which have engulfed parts of the steppe and woods surrounding the city of Energodar, led to short-circuits in the local grid, leaving not only parts of Zaporozhye Region without power, but also the neighboring Kherson Region.

The head of the military-civil Administration of Energodar, Yevgeny Balitski, has been quoted by media as saying: “According to preliminary information, because of massive shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which has continued since last night, fields and undergrowth caught fire. This led to a short-circuit in the grid.” He added that two power units were turned off, after which the Zaporozhye Region was left without power supply.

In addition, 19 shells of the US-made HIMARS MLRS have been intercepted near Kakhovskaya HPP, Kherson and Donetsk cities.

Two workers at the Zaporozhye facility have been providing information to AFU, the Russian National Guard protecting ZNPP with assault rifles has claimed.

Russian forces have detained two employees of the ZNPP, who have been providing information on troops and hardware locations to Kiev’s forces, the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya) said on August 24.

“Apart from that, a violator of access control [to the plant], an accomplice of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who transmitted the coordinates of the movement of columns of Russian military hardware, has been detained,” they added.

After seizing security control of the power station on March 4, 2022, Russian forces have detained 26 violators of access control to the plant – the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the National Guard revealed.

It noted that “Specialists of the nuclear, biological and chemical defense of the National Guard, together with colleagues from the Ministry of Defense, daily, several times a day, monitor the situation by measuring radiation levels at control points along the perimeter of the facility.”

Earlier, the Ukrainian company Energoatom – the ZNPP’s operator – claimed that for the first time in nearly 40 years ever it had been completely disconnected from the power grid.

On August 23, the media resource Zaporozhsky Vestnik said electricity supply for Melitopol, Energodar and a number of other localities of the Zaporozhye Region had been disrupted due to the Ukrainian army’s shelling of Energodar. A field near Energodar reportedly caught fire, which caused a short circuit at a substation.

In recent weeks, the ZNPP and nearby city of Energodar have been repeatedly shelled by Ukrainian Armed Forces. The attacks damaged multiple buildings on the premises of the plant, causing fires and power outages, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

The daily list of recent Ukrainian attacks has been made public on August 23, 2022 (the USA space satellites could verify all these cases):

• on August 11, the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired at the ZNPP with 152 mm guns, damaging equipment for cooling the reactors;
• on August 14, Ukrainian artillery shelled the ZNPP using M777 howitzers supplied by the United States, and also used two guided munitions; a man was killed in Energodar due to shelling, and another was injured;
• on August 15, the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired 30 shells from 152 mm guns at this city;
• on August 17, Ukrainian troops fired 11 shells and launched a Polish-made kamikaze drone, inflicted three strikes at Energodar;
• on August 18, the city was fired upon by heavy artillery seven times;
• on August 20, the Armed Forces of Ukraine once again opened fire on the territory of ZNPP from howitzers transferred by the United States;
• on August 22, a drone of the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the laboratory building No. 2 at the ZNPP;
• In the past 24 hours, ZNPP has been shelled twice by Ukrainian troops with large-calibre artillery guns. As a result of the shelling, four munitions exploded near oxygen and nitrogen station, and another one in the area of the special building No. 1. AFU artillery position from which the territory of the nuclear power plant was shelled has been detected to the west of the city of Marganets located in Dnepropetrovsk Region, controlled by AFU. During last day, Ukrainian artillery have launched seven large-calibre artillery strikes against NPP area.The shelling was carried out from Ukrainian troops' firing positions near Nikopol', Marganets, Vyshetarasovka and Chervonogrigorovka, located on the opposite bank of Kakhovka reservoir.

It should be noted that The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists frequently publishes faked stories about ZNPP and camouflage all facts dealt Ukrainian attacks on it.

Recently it offered the readers the interview with Oleh Savitskyi [by Jessica McKenzie, August 19, 2022], a board member of the non-governmental organization Ecoaction and a climate and energy policy ‘expert’ (?) with the Ukrainian Climate who disseminated fairy tales about ZNPP and protected Kiev’s nuclear terrorism who constantly is shelling the plant just for four real purposes: 1) to blame Russia for what it does not do (shelling of ZNPP); 2) to disguise its blackmailing efforts its own attacks on ZNPP; 3) to get more money and deadly offensive weapons from the West; and 4) to intimidate the world community with nuclear disaster at ZNPP after getting a free hand to manipulate with its reactors after Russian National Guard would supposedly leave the territory of the plant, thus wishing to repeat the Chernobyl NPP disaster in 1986.

Oleh Savitskyi also claimed that Russia “kidnapped hundreds of people” (?). Where? What are their names? He did not name any. And will never do. Because it is a lie. There are no complains of ’kidnapping’ from all ethnic Ukrainians and Russians who have already moved into Russia after Ukrainian atrocities that started since 2014.

3. Protesters in Moscow called out West over Ukraine’s use of APM on civilians

Demonstrations against the use of air-dropped anti-personnel mines or APM were held in Moscow on August 24 near the Embassies of the USA and France in Moscow to protest the use of scatterable APM by NATO-backed Ukraine.

The protesters taped images of the mines to the sidewalk around the Embassies. The stickers featured a QR code leading to a website explaining what the PFM-1 mines are and accusing Ukraine of dropping them on Donbass cities.

Kiev’s aim is evident: to make more civilians in Donbass crippled or dead.

By now Armed Forces of Ukraine dispersed more than 19,000 such mines in Donbass. 47 civilians, including two kids have been injured, one man died.

Ukraine has large stockpiles of different types of mine, including an estimated six million PFM-1 mines as of 2011. The country was supposed to dispose of its stocks of the mine to comply with its ligations, but refused.

Thus, Ukraine violates the Ottawa Convention on banning APM. Kiev has signed and ratified it.

4. Russian ex-president envisions military junta in Kiev

A coup is the only alternative to a civilian government accepting Russia’s terms for peace, former Russian president and now deputy chair of the Russian National Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev said.

He outlined the scenario as one of two options that he believes to be viable for Ukraine. The other was if the government of President Vladimir Zelensky changed its tune and agreed to Russia’s terms for ending hostilities. Either way, Russia will get what it wants from Ukraine, the official stressed.

5. Who spends more? And what for?

The USA spends more money on the Armed Forces of Ukraine than Ukraine itself. Since January 2021, Washington has provided Ukraine with military aid roughly three times its annual defense budget, a White House spokeswoman said.

6. Ukraine’s anti-Russian statement at the UNO was backed by less than a third of its members

Of the 193 states, only 58 agree with the position of Kiev. These are European countries, the USA, Great Britain, Georgia, Turkey, Switzerland, as well as several countries in Asia and Latin America.

The statement unjustifiably criticized Russia’s actions and called on it to immediately stop combat operations.

7. Russian Armed Forces will soon increase its military personnel

The Russian president signs a decree on adding more troops to the Armed Forces. The document, published on the Government’s website, adds 137,000 men to the ranks of the Armed Forces from January 1, 2023 bringing the total quantity to 1,150628 military men. The previous figure fixed by the law in November 2017 was 1,013628 military men.

By that time the overall strength of the RAF will be 2,039758 persons (military men plus 889,139 civilians working in the Armed Forces included).

Some Russian analysts suggest that such move is not only dealt with the third Ukrainian aggression and genocide versus Donbass (they are is still continued), but with additional potential NATO enlargement in Northern Europe that might happen in 2022.

Written by Vladimir P. Kozin