What is the future of Ukrainian nuclear power plants?

Roman Svitan in an interview to Fabryka news on what is the future of Ukrainian nuclear power plants?

Yevheniia Kutnova: When we talk about possible concessions, compromises that are being voiced and actively discussed, in particular about nuclear power plants. The proposal of the Americans to transfer, let’s say, nuclear power plants under American control as assets, and this will be a guarantee of security. Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to all this and said that the NPP belongs only to the people of Ukraine. And there are some opinions that the United States wants control over our NPP to monitor nuclear waste so that we don’t make some kind of bomb. Roman Hryhorovych, can we consider this as a version? And Zelenskyy’s response, can it be interpreted as him putting Trump in his place at that time?

Roman Svitan: How did he put him in his place if he himself proposed it? Where did Trump get the idea about our natural resources? Well, because all this green mess ran to Trump so that he could call them for a while, and they started offering natural resources. Naturally, if they’re offering, why not accept it? Trump is a thug, and these green fools ran to him, or they say they’re not fools. Well, that’s the situation; let them deal with Achilles. Who suggested the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to Trump? Zelenskyy. But he himself said it, that he only spoke about the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. So, he offered it to him. So the question is, why? Well, that’s a question that investigators of counterintelligence should be asking, and they definitely will. Why? Because this is already a direct blow to the country’s economy and economic security.

So what does it mean “proposed”? It’s clear that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is currently in a specific state, it was taken out of state registration, reclassified as a corporation. The most interesting thing is that they did this recently. So they’ve already prepared it for transfer somewhere. Yes, right now, 100% of the shares of this corporation are held by the state, by the people of Ukraine. But that doesn’t mean they can’t just take it, sell it, or inject additional money into it, or transfer it through bankruptcy or court. So, this is almost a fully prepared company, Energoatom, ready for transfer. And this is a big problem. So now, again, it’s being prepared by whom? By Zelenskyy, directly, his idea regarding the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. It’s some kind of external management. The question is, why do we need this now? If we haven’t yet liberated the territory near the plant, and to restart the nuclear plant’s six power units, we need to cut off the land corridor, practically liberate Zaporizhzhia, at least part of the Kherson region. Only after this we can talk about restarting the plant. Why is all this happening now? It’s to create an opportunity to launch the plant under the control of the United States, without the management of Russia and Ukraine, and trade electricity.

Believe me, part of the electricity will definitely go to the occupied territories—Donbas, Crimea, and Rostov. This is to make it possible to legally launch the station under Russian control without going beyond the legal framework established by the same IAEA. So, this is the mechanism. It’s an interesting way to do it. For Ukraine, at the moment, this station is needed only for two purposes. In order to launch two ferroalloy Penchuk plants. Penchuk Kuchma. This is where it all comes from. This is the task. Without cheap electricity, neither the Nikopol nor Zaporizhzhia ferroalloy plants can be launched. And for this, it needs to be handed over to the Americans. Again, it was our people, the greens, who took this to the Americans. This is their idea of launching it this way. So, for us, right now, until we liberate our territory, it’s not necessary. For the Russians, it’s like a suitcase without a handle. They can’t launch it themselves; the IAEA won’t allow it. Although they are already pulling power lines there, at least the media reports say they are pulling transmission lines to extract electricity. They’re already preparing for it. So, this is a problem of ours—or rather, not ours, because Ukrainians would never have done this, they wouldn’t have sold land, they wouldn’t have offered natural resources, and they wouldn’t have handed Energoatom over to external management. This is not what the Ukrainian government is doing—100%. Ukrainians would never have thought of this. But these people are doing it. Why? Because somewhere they want to stay, most likely.

Why? Because they are involved in all operations related to the movement of electricity, supplies, and so on. They’re trying to stay, even after the change of power, trying to remain in the next stages. So, if Energoatom is handed over to the Americans, and these greens will have their say somewhere, they will stay even after the change of power. This is what Poroshenko did too, the genius. While he was in power, he brought money through certain financial structures. And now, Ukraine is paying him, paying interest to Poroshenko’s corporations for the use of that finance, because he bought certain bonds. So, that’s how it all works. All these people, they’re not Ukrainians, they’re not pro-Ukrainian. They’re thinking about themselves, about their own behind, mainly. That’s why I don’t see anything good from this green government for Ukraine, especially now. They’re trying to capitulate. I say, they can’t even do that. They don’t have the legitimacy for it.

Ukraine Front Lines

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