This is just a very short diary. Something I’ve been wondering/worrying about lately.
Why are the Russians shelling the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant? We know it is obviously not the Ukrainians doing it, so what possible reason could there be?
Then we recently learn that pretty much every Russian commander and officer have fled Kherson, hightailing it back to Crimea. Kherson will be well within any leak area.
Is the end-goal to create an off-ramp for Putin? Create another Chernobyl, blame it on the Ukrainians and then withdraw “to preserve the safety of the Russian army”? Putin would save face, be able to claim “Oh-nos — the Ukrainian Nazis killed themselves and their people with radiation poisoning, so now it is ‘mission accomplished’ and we can all go home. We win!” It would be a world class war crime, but, you know, it IS Russia we are talking about.
Based on the historical propensity of Russia to deny and deflect any atrocity (MH17, Bucha, Mariupol POWs and so on), is this scenario plausible?
I’d like to hear what the community thinks. I hope my theory is considered complete nonsense.