DISINFO: Ukraine blackmails Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant workers
SUMMARY
The Ukrainian Nazis are reportedly engaging in blackmail against workers at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, threatening to harm their relatives. The intent appears to be to identify and target these individuals in order to exert pressure on them or provoke them into carrying out terrorist activities.
RESPONSE
The article promotes a widely spread pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that aims to justify Russia’s full-scale war against a sovereign state by falsely accusing the Ukrainian leadership of committing terrorist acts and severely harassing civilians. This disinformation paints Ukraine as a terrorist regime and seeks to portray the Ukrainian Armed Forces in a negative light, labelling them with the persistent and unfounded accusation of Nazism.
In reality, there is no solid evidence of Ukrainian officials threatening their own citizens, let alone planning or orchestrating terrorist attacks, or seeking proxies to carry out such acts.
On August 23rd, the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, issued Update 246 – IAEA Director General Statement on the Situation in Ukraine regarding the deteriorating security situation at the Zaporizhzhya NPP, which in early September 2024, is still under Russian control. Rafael Grossi mentioned that on August 23, 2024, an emergency shutdown occurred in the Ferosplavna-1 backup power line. He emphasised that the plant is situated on the front line and is subject to shelling, which has left the NPP without a stable source of electricity.
The head of the IAEA emphasised that five safety principles must be strictly observed at the plant, which is currently under Russian control. These principles include a ban on any attacks on the NPP, a prohibition against using the plant as a storage facility for weapons, and ensuring a reliable external power supply from the grid for all nuclear facilities. Both the head of the Agency and its experts have reported catastrophic violations of nuclear safety rules at the Zaporizhzhya NPP since the plant's occupation by Russian troops began in 2022.
The IAEA also emphasised that Russia continues to threaten the nuclear safety of Ukraine and the entire world with constant attacks on the country's critical infrastructure.
In addition, the use of terrorism has been documented in Russia, and on October 13, 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) officially recognised the Russian regime as a terrorist entity. On November 23, 2022, the European Parliament passed a resolution designating Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. According to this resolution, the deliberate attacks and atrocities committed by Russian forces and their proxies against civilians in Ukraine, along with the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other grave violations of international and humanitarian law, constitute acts of terror and war crimes. Consequently, MEPs have acknowledged Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state that "employs terrorism as a method."
Finally, the accusation of Nazism in Ukraine has been a recurring theme in Russian disinformation since the 2014 Euromaidan protests, intended to discredit Kyiv's pivot toward Euro-Atlantic integration. In 2015, Ukraine enacted laws banning both Nazi and Communist ideologies, which has led to the removal of numerous monuments to Communist leaders since the country's independence in 1991.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Ukraine’s advance into Russia’s Kursk Region is barbaric and terrorist, that Ukrainian Nazis demolish statue of Lenin in Russia’s Kursk Region or read the analysis Nazi east, Nazi west, Nazi over the cuckoo’s nest or Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism? explaining that according to the pro-Kremlin media, you either support the Russian regime or, if you don’t, you’re labelled a Nazi.