Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant crisis

I guess maybe picking up on some of the sort of questions around you raised there with the experience of Ukrainians from occupied territories.

You know, I think when we look at, obviously, the horrific crimes that are happening in the occupied territories and the sort of state that they've become, it can also distract from the fact that Russia is also doing some fairly significantly risky or dangerous practices in the sort of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which it controls and sort of the setting up a very important for them military electronic warfare infrastructure in Erkhoda.

And when you look at the sort of, you know, on one hand, the fairly cynical use of settlements near nuclear power plants to host military equipment and at the same time sort of lecturing on the global stage about Western, I guess, recklessness when it comes to support for Ukraine.

Maybe it's just because Ukraine is much more familiar with Russia and how it operates, but it does seem like there's been much less willingness by Ukrainian policymakers to even take seriously these sort of clear contradictions.

I guess.

So it's kind of an obsolete idea.

And thanks for mentioning temporarily occupied territories because actually the Zaporizhzhia power plant is now under Russia's control and it's on temporarily occupied territory.

So people who are there, who are kept hostages and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant actually are not protected by the international law.

And in Donbass, it's over 90%.

Kherson and Zaporozhye, it's like 80, 85%.

You know, it's still a very strong majority wanted to be with Russia, but it's not the over, you know, the nearly 100% majority that you get in the Donbass and Crimea.

Yeah.

which one.

Zaporizhia, right? Yeah.

It's in the middle of a war.

The damn thing's been shelled a half a dozen times and nothing, no radiation release.

I mean, you made me think Ukraine, about if, if we have a lot of little nuclear plants around, th- aren't they the easiest targets for the greatest amount of casualties? [laughs]

Yeah, actually, so it's a bit of a silly anecdote, but in the, like, very early days of the war in Ukraine when they were literally, uh, bombing or shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, I remember watching that on the news, like, in the evening in California, and I was like, "Geez, this is, this is a horrible mess."

Yeah.

Like, I'm glad I don't have to give commentary on it 'cause I can't think of a single reassuring thing to say about that.

And then I check my email, and I get an email from a producer at CNN being like, "Can you come on the show at 6:00 AM Pacific tomorrow-

[laughs] Talk about the Zaporizhzhia

... and talk about the Zaporizhzhia bombing?" Yeah, but I 100% agree, and even more so in issues like that.

Like at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, I mentioned the used fuel canisters that they have, um-