Russian State TV Guests Angrily Clash Over Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

A Kremlin propagandist has suggested that Russian troops would fight in a radioactively contaminated battlefield should there be an explosion at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).

The Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) said on Friday that Russian troops and officials were leaving Europe's largest nuclear power plant possibly in preparation for an intentional "accident" at the facility.

The GUR said Ukrainian employees at the plant who had signed contracts with Russian nuclear energy corporation Rosatom have been told they must evacuate the facility by July 5.

But the show Mesta Vstrechi (Meeting Place) on the NTV channel claimed that it was Kyiv which is "planning a provocation" at the site, during a discussion tweeted by Russia watcher Julia Davis.

Anchor Andrey Norkin said—while standing in front of a studio map showing the aftermath of potential contamination from an explosion at the NPP—Ukrainians were stocking up on iodine tablets to protect against radioactive exposure

He suggested that Kyiv's claims about an incident at the NPP were aimed to coincide with the upcoming NATO summit in Lithuania starting on July 11.

"They are screaming the Russians want to blow it up," said Norkin, per translation provided by Davis' Russian Media Monitor account, "Then they will do something over there," which could push the alliance into accepting Kyiv's membership.

Military analyst Alexey Leonkov pushed the unproven Kremlin line that Kyiv was behind the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in the Kherson oblast for which Ukraine has accused Russia of "ecocide."

Leonkov suggested that a similar incident could happen at the NPP and said that the fallout could be controlled to such an extent that it would head toward Ukraine's Donbas region.

"It will not pose any threat to Europe," he said, suggesting that it could contaminate Ukrainian and Russian territory but that an explosion can be carried out in a way that "prevents global contamination."

The guests then argued about fighting in a radioactive zone. Bogdan Bezpalko, a member of the Kremlin's Council for Interethnic Relations, said that a "provocation" at the NPP could be used as a pretext to push NATO countries into the conflict and "isolate Russia completely."

Political analyst Viktor Olevich questioned why Ukraine would want to do this and sabotage its own counteroffensive plans in the region.

"If anything serious happens" at the NPP, causing severe radioactive contamination, this would "immediately lead to the freezing of the conflict," he said.

Leonkov disagreed, saying that Russian troops, like Soviet troops before them, would be prepared "to fight in a zone of radioactive contamination."

With voices raised, Olevich challenged Leonkov on whether Russian generals would genuinely lead their troops to fight in such an environment, to which Leonkov replied, "Our equipment is specially designed with this in mind."

The Institute for the Study of War said on Friday that Russian forces would not be able to control the consequences of sabotaging the plant.

They could carry out "several possible radiological man-made incidents" at the site, "some more serious than others," such as discharging irradiated water from the plant into the Kakhovka Reservoir to disrupt a potential Ukrainian crossing, the think tank said.

Another possibility was that Moscow's forces could try to create a radiological plume to cover southern Ukraine, although this would be difficult.

ISW concluded that Russia was "unlikely" to cause an intentional "accident" at the plant but was rather using the threat of doing so to constrain Ukraine's counteroffensive and pressure the West ahead of the NATO summit.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.