Russians threaten false flag attack on Ukraine nuclear facilities

 ISW:

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Ukrainian sources warned on June 29 that Russian forces may be planning a false flag provocation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) to accuse Ukrainian authorities of mishandling nuclear facilities.[6] Ukrainian nuclear operating enterprise Energoatom stated that Russian occupation authorities are planning to throw unsafe objects into the cooling system at the NPP in order to compromise the plant’s cooling mechanisms.[7] Mayor of Enerhodar Dmytro Orlov added that Russian troops have been kidnapping and torturing employees of the NPP to coerce confessions that employees dropped weapons into the cooling systems to sabotage the plant and blame Ukrainian authorities for paying inadequate attention to the management of the NPP.[8] Russian troops have previously demonstrated irresponsible and dangerous behavior in and around nuclear power plants, firing on nuclear facilities at the Zaporizhzhia NPP in early March and digging into radioactive soil in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.[9]
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The Russians have underperformed in their war against Ukraine and could be resorting to more desperate measures to try to justify their efforts.   One of the Russian problems is that they are running out of manpower and conventional resources for fighting.  They have lost many of their main battle tanks and are pulling older models out of storage in an attempt to fill the gap if they can find enough troops to fill the gaps in their forces.  The Russian troops have not inspired as a professional military and their leadership that has survived the war has also underperformed. Putin is trying to fill in the gaps with retirees at this point.

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