Vladimir Putin is probably bluffing when it comes to unleashing nuclear devastation on the world – because he knows it would be suicidal.
At least, that’s the view of an internationally recognised expert on security and intelligence matters. It comes after Ukraine’s president Volodomyr Zelensky claimed Russia has planted explosives around Europe’s largest nuclear power station.
Zelensky said “it is the responsibility of everyone in the world to stop” Russia from blowing up Zaporizhzhia plant. And he said the world “is ready to respond” to prevent Putin’s regime from deliberately triggering a Chernobyl-style nuclear incident.
Russian, however, has claimed that it is Zelensky who is planning an attack on the power station. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “There is a great threat of sabotage by the Kyiv regime, which can be catastrophic in its consequences.”
Neither side has provided any proof for the allegations. Zelensky claimed Ukrainian intelligence had seen objects, that could be explosives, on the roof of the power plant.
However, The Associated Press reviewed high-resolution satellite imagery of the plant taken on Monday and Wednesday and saw no visible changes to the rooftops of the six concrete containment domes covering the reactors at the plant, or nearby buildings.
Nonetheless, Putin has previously suggested that, if he was provoked by the West, he would not hesitate to use Russia’s nuclear arsenal. And, last month, it was claimed that Putin ‘definitely considering’ use of tactical nuclear weapons as an option in Ukraine
However, academic and author Professor Anthony Glees says he believes that Putin is almost certainly bluffing.
Glees told the Daily Star: “Putin, true to the KGB tradecraft of his early days, is desperately doing his best to threaten and terrorise Ukraine and its allies and kill as many innocent Ukrainians as he can. But he will not start a nuclear fight because he knows that to do so would be suicidal, for Russia and himself.
“Yes, [Putin] wants the world to think he is totally happy to convert the nuclear energy plant into a ‘theatre’ nuclear weapon in order to deter Ukraine from making further advances into the south eastern sector of Russian controlled territory.
“Yes he wants Ukraine and Europe to fear another Chernobyl. And yes he is a cold, calculating murderer who does not balk at killing civilians with rockets and drones.
“But he wants to win, as far as he can, he does not want to be destroyed by the war of aggression that he has started, one which he is increasingly looking like losing. He wants to live, not to die.”
“The Zaporizhzhia plant is located in contested territory and is directly in the path of the slowly advancing Ukrainian forces. Putin wants to stop them in their tracks and is using the threat of nuclear explosions, which he says would be caused by Ukraine, to do so.
Putin may well seek to contaminate the territory in which the Zaporizhzhia plant is situated, just as he blew up the Kakhovka dam to make it hard for Zelensky’s troops to advance towards Crimea.
“Even if there’s little danger to the people of Ukraine and Europe, more generally, any release of any radioactive debris would be a problem for the Ukrainian army, they’d have to take iodine tablets and we’d get to know about this fairly soon over the next few days”.
