Like Chernobyl, Only Worse

“Europe needs to wake up,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned, after the Russian military shelled Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, causing a fire and sparking a mini-panic across markets.

“No country has ever shot at nuclear blocks except for Russia,” Zelenskiy said. “For the first time in human history, a terrorist country has resorted to nuclear terror.”

Energoatom, which operates all four nuclear power stations in Ukraine, described the incident on its website. “On the evening of March 3, 2022, the Russian occupiers broke through the checkpoint at the entrance to Energodar and the Zaporizhzhia NPP with heavy equipment consisting of about 100 units, stormed the city and began shelling the nuclear power plant,” company chief Petro Kotin said. “Despite the desperate resistance of the National Guard and the residents of Energodar, a column of occupiers’ equipment fired close to the station, the surrounding infrastructure and the training center, which eventually caught fire.”

The fire was extinguished, and there was no immediate indication of radiation leaks, but Russian troops seized the site after a gun battle. Although station staff were being “allowed to work” as of 9 AM local time, they were doing so “under the barrels of machine guns,” Energoatom said.

The IAEA is worried, to put it mildly. The organization put its Incident and Emergency Center in full response mode and promised to monitor the situation “around the clock.” Director General Rafael Mario Grossi wasn’t amused. “I’m extremely concerned about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and what happened there during the night,” he said Friday. “Firing shells in the area of a nuclear power plant violates the fundamental principle that the physical integrity of nuclear facilities must be maintained and kept safe at all times.”

China voiced its own concerns and said all parties should “avoid escalation and ensure the safety of nuclear facilities.” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin then proceeded to regale the press with an anti-US harangue, calling America the “culprit” for the conflict. Beijing is currently trying to evacuate its own nationals. Reports indicate some Chinese students were killed in Ukraine.

“[Washington] claims to be preventing a war in Europe. Did it accomplish that mission?”, Wang wondered, rhetorically.

Meanwhile, a slim majority of Swedes want to join NATO. A poll commissioned for Aftonbladet showed 51% support membership. According to the tabloid, it’s the first time ever that a majority backed joining the alliance.

Olaf Scholz, speaking at a military base Friday, said “NATO will play no part” in the Ukraine conflict.” “We’re making sure together that nobody attacks NATO territory,” he explained, adding that bolstering NATO’s presence in eastern European is “purely defensive.”

In Russia, the lower house of parliament was set to consider punishing anti-war protesters with forced conscription into the Russian military. Offenders would be arrested, drafted and sent to fight in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Parliament unanimously cleared a law making it illegal to “discredit” Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. Russians found “guilty” face 15 years in prison. The Kremlin has implied that using the word “war” or “invasion” to describe Putin’s “special military operation” may count as a punishable offsense.

In a statement Friday, Energoatom offered a stark assessment of Russia’s activities around Zaporizhzhia. “During the Chernobyl disaster, the explosion occurred at one power unit,” the company said. “At the Zaporizhzhia station there are six of them.”