So the Russians are claiming that the Ukrainians are gonna blow up the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and then blame it on Russia. That’d certainly be a neat trick for the Ukrainians, since the Russians occupy and control the place. Ukraine claims the Russians are going to blow it up and blame it on Ukraine, but it seems that the wind would tend to blow the fallout into Russia.

Ukraine, Russia accuse each other of planning to attack Europe’s biggest nuclear plant

There have been two similar “false flag” attacks in this war: the Nord Stream pipeline and the Kakhovka dam. Small problem… sober analysis seems to indicate that both of those were destroyed by incompetence and/or neglect rather than direct action. But the nuclear power plant is shut down; it should be nicely inert. So if it explodes… somebody exploded it. Who is more likely to do that, Ukraine or Russia? Ukraine could probably only pull that off with some sort of major assault… a lot of troops, planes and armor, aided by HIMARS and the like raining down. While possible, that could hardly be disguised as a Russian attack. And of course, Ukraine wants the reactor back. It’s theirs, after all. Never mind the environmental devastation of its destruction, it’s worth a bucket of cash. Repairing it would be cost prohibitive, and resuming power generation would be an economic boon.

On the other hand, the Russians could well have mined the place. At the push of a button their could turn it into garbage.

Why would they do something so crazy? I dunno. Ask Prigozhin. Why do Russian military/political leaders do *anything,* and is there anything resembling reason, logic or sense to it?

If it happens… things will likely get sporty. An attack on Ukraine is not an attack on NATO. But intentionally causing a reactor meltdown or setting fire to spent fuel rods? That *might* send clouds of fallout over Germany, Poland and the like. They could consider that a radiological attack, and might invoke Article 5. And then it’s NATO vs Russia.