Russia continues nuclear blackmail: what unites ‘evacuation’ at Belgorod-22 facility and events at Zaporizhzhian nuclear power plant

The Russian Federation will try to use the events in the Belgorod region to highlight the possibility of an attack on nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation. I do not exclude that in the future this situation may be extrapolated to the events around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. That is, all the efforts of the Ukrainian side in the international arena to de-occupy the Zaporizhzhia NPP and withdraw the Russian contingent will be levelled by statements of the Russian side about the need to protect nuclear facilities.

On the morning of May 22, the Russian Volunteer Corps announced that it had entered Russian territory and was performing combat missions there.

Later, it became known that the Russian authorities were urgently evacuating the Belgorod-22 nuclear munitions storage facility in the Belgorod region.

This was stated by the representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Andriy Yusov.

"It (the nuclear munitions storage facility - ed.) is located near Grayvoron, where some of the ammunition for nuclear weapons was stored," the representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine added.

According to him, the situation in the Belgorod region was causing panic among the Russian leadership, as evidenced by the evacuation of the local population.

"The evacuation of the Belgorod-22 military facility is also a reaction. We understand that to evacuate this kind of facility, you need to have a plan, involve serious equipment and a large number of personnel," said the representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.

It is worth noting that the information about the urgent evacuation of the Belgorod-22 nuclear munitions storage facility was not subsequently confirmed.

In his turn, Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the head of the Presidential Office, said that Ukraine is observing the operation of the Russian Volunteer Corps, but has nothing to do with it.

Specially for Espreso

About the author. Dmytro Sniehyriov, columnist for Espreso

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.