ukraine: Ukraine resort to desperate tactics that could lead

The Ukrainian Army, pushed on the backfoot, have allegedly resorted to tactics that involve sacrificing Prisoners of War and threatening action that could lead to a major nuclear accident.

Kyiv has been accused of striking a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in eastern Ukraine, killing 40 detainees and injuring 75 including some who had defended Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant. The Russian defence ministry alleged that a HIMARS missile strike hit a pre-trial detention centre in Olenivka, in the separatist-held region of Donetsk.

Those troops had surrendered earlier this year after a three-month siege of Mariupol’s steelworkers and were transferred to Russian-held territory. Eight employees of the detention centre were also injured, Russia said.

Moscow has alleged that the attack was a “bloody provocation of the Kyiv regime” designed to discourage Ukrainian troops from laying down their arms.

“This egregious provocation was carried out to intimidate Ukrainian servicemen,” the Russian defence ministry said. Russia has invited the United Nations and the Red Cross to investigate the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war amid Ukraine’s allegation that Russia has been responsible for attacking the prison.

Azov Battalion is the most controversial of all the Ukrainian forces – espousing right wing ideology, showcasing Nazi symbols and focussing on white supremacist ideology.

Azov began as a military infantry unit made up of civilian volunteers drawn from far-right, neo-Nazi groups that were active in Ukraine, such as the Patriot of Ukraine gang and the Social National Assembly (SNA). Interestingly, The Washington Post in an article earlier this year referred to right wing Nazi tendencies of Azov battalion.

Meanwhile Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video address has said Ukraine’s army is targeting Russian troops at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility in the south of the country.

Vladimir Rogov, a member of the regional administration accused Ukraine of targeting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with multiple launch rocket systems and heavy artillery

The Zaporizhzhia plant is the largest nuclear power station in Europe. The plant has been under the control of Russia since March. The nuclear facility is still being operated by Ukrainian staff. It is among the 10 largest nuclear power plant in the world.

“They [Kyiv and its allies] say it’s Russia. That’s obviously 100 percent nonsense, even for the stupid Russophobic public,” Medvedev, now the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on his instant messenger Telegram channel on Friday with regard to the nuclear power plant.

Senior Russian legislator Leonid Slutsky, the chair of the lower house’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said the idea of returning the plant to the control of Ukrainians was a “mockery from the point of view of ensuring safety”.

“And all the statements of the G7 foreign ministers in support of their demands are nothing but ‘sponsorship of nuclear terrorism’,” he added on his Telegram channel.