podcast
“Ukraine – the situation”
“Extremely dangerous situation”: military expert Masala warns of GAU due to fighting at nuclear power plants
Enerhodar, Ukraine. In this photo, taken during a trip organized by the Russian Defense Ministry, a Russian soldier guards an area of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in an area under Russian military control in south-eastern Ukraine.
© Uncredited/AP/DPA
Military expert Carlo Masala warns of the devastating consequences of the fighting in the vicinity of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
Military expert Carlo Masala has warned of the devastating consequences of the fighting in the vicinity of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. Masala said on Tuesday im star-Podcast “Ukraine – the situation”, it is an “extremely dangerous situation we are in here”. What exactly is going on is not clear, but “fights are taking place there, that’s for sure – and this fact alone makes it so dangerous”.
Military expert Masala: Combat operations in Ukraine could subside after the summer
The politics professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich said he “didn’t want to speculate about who was shooting at the nuclear power plant.” There are no independent reports on this. “If it wasn’t the Ukrainians, then part of the Russian strategy is to terrify us all,” Masala said. He advocated allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency to review the facility. “You have to deal with this problem vigorously,” he stressed.
© Imago Images
dr Carlo Masala is Professor of International Politics at the Bundeswehr University in Munich.
Masala saw the new and largest US aid package to date as a continuation of the previous support. It will enable the Ukrainians to defend their positions and inflict casualties on the Russians. But it will not enable the Ukrainians to conduct major offensives.
At the same time, the relocation of Russian units from the embattled Donbass to the south makes it clear how limited the number of Russian troops in the war zone is. Masala expects the fighting to subside after the summer. He said, “Eventually it will start raining, then the ground will get muddy, and then the fighting will automatically slow down because the device won’t work properly.”
This could lead to an attempt by Russia to end the fighting on what it considers favorable terms. “We may get into a situation where the fighting will lessen in the fall, prices will explode in western nations, and then Russia will come around the corner with a ceasefire,” he said.