Did I just hear Admiral James Stavridis, former NATO Supreme Commander, just suggest on MSNBC that NATO should issue an ultimatum to Russia to safeguard the Zaporizhzhia NPP (that it has occupied since the early days of its invasion of Ukraine) against a potential meltdown? Presumably by withdrawing its military forces from the area and enforced by a NATO-led No-Fly Zone? How that would actually work remained unstated, particularly since a No-Fly Zone doesn’t seem at all well-suited to dealing with any sort of ground combat or artillery strikes that are currently the main cause for concern.
He also indicated that the only reason Putin allowed Ukrainian grain to leave Ukrainian ports was the threat NATO apparently made to break the Russian blockade by physically escorting those ships (presumably via Romanian and/or Bulgarian warships). Sorry, I don’t have an actual link to this yet — does anyone else have any further info on what could potentially be an enormous new development in this ongoing war?
Update -- At the suggestion of 1BQ, I’m including a link to Stavridis’s opinion piece today in the Taipei Times:
Demilitarize the Zaporizhzhia plant and the surrounding area. Any nuclear operation in a combat zone must be regarded under international law similarly to a medical facility or religious center — a no-strike/no-occupy zone.
Russia should be pressured to hand over the plant to an international mission led by the UN and staffed by the IAEA. Logistical support could be provided by a neutral country, perhaps India, which operates more than 20 reactors.
Convincing Russia to do this is certain to be difficult, but additional pressure could be brought to bear by further condemnation in the UN General Assembly; by NATO returning to the idea of a no-fly zone, at least one limited to the area around the nuclear plant; or by increased economic punishment, including global secondary sanctions on Russian energy sales.