https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/ukraine/2023/06/russia-plan-blow-up-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-drafted-approved
Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence, warns of a dangerous escalation.
Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence, warns of a dangerous escalation.
That might be why the Wagner mercenary thing is happening right now. For them it might be "Now or never" if they think there's a chance they might be up against NATO.
Just as Ukraine and NATO have already crossed many of Putin’s “red lines”, they have been crossed for NATO as well and a and they havnt gotten involved militarily. While catastrophic, I don’t think they would get involved just yet especially with the turn of events in mainland Russia.
Of course escalation in any way is serious, and any percentage increase in NATO involvement is a massive cause for concern.
Yeah but didn’t NATO specifically stage the other day that any form of radioactive contamination of member states will result in troops on Russian soil?
What NATO red lines were crossed. Remember these have to be stated. By nato. Not a nato member on their own. Much like russian ones are only legitamate when putin states them.
Obama isn't NATO, he's only a commander-in-chief of a large military that happens to also be a primary member of the NATO treaty.
This red line was still used by the US, Britain, France, etc as a justification to bomb Syria.
But it was more of a "whatever" intervention, rather than the actual intervention that a red line implies.
But the British House of Commons refused to support the strikes. Worried about alienating Congress, Obama also backed down. On its own by this point, France had no choice but to back down too. François Hollande, then French president, was convinced that this was “a missed opportunity that could have changed the course of the war”.
Western powers opted for the path of diplomacy instead.
and to go further since there did seem to be a goodly amount of consequences to the ignored red line. Much of this seems to be more about proof than anything else:
"Western powers opted for the path of diplomacy instead. Assad’s government was forced to join the international Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and a US-Russian agreement to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons capability was signed in Geneva on September 14, 2013.
In August 2014, the White House hailed the destruction of 581 tons of sarin and 19.8 tons of mustard gas under the OPCW’s supervision.
Nevertheless, in August 2016, a UN and OPCW commission known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) claimed that Syrian military helicopters had dropped chlorine on at least two places in northwestern Idlib province – in Talmenes in 2014 and Sarmine in 2015. Then in October 2016, another JIM report concluded that the Syrian military had carried out a chemical weapon attack, likely using chlorine, in Qmenas, also in Idlib, in March 2015.
But it was not until the April 4 attack on Khan Cheikhoun that the West decided to take military action. At least 83 people died in the air raid on rebel-controlled territory in Idlib province, their symptoms suggesting they were victims of a chemical attack."
what does that have to do with the ukraine conflict or anything nato wise. Syria was killing their own folks. Putin does that all the time. So do many other dicktaters.
The relevance is that red lines, by anyone, have a history of being ignored with little consequence.
your own comment above to another show it was not ignored. syria only avoided bombings by an act of an elected body. Even still consequences did happen.
The US is putting forth a resolution that any radioactive material falling on a NATO ally is an act of war and will warrant retaliation.
Deleted my previous comment I was unaware of such a resolution but you and previous commentators are correct. Statement on “nuclear cloud” has been made by NATO as a red line, which is terrifying.
Yeah this is insane. I wonder how many private jets are headed towards New Zealand today.
New Zealand is the safest place to weather a nuclear winter due to its relative isolation.
Wonder if this is what pushed Wagner to try a coup. Causing a nuclear disaster is just insane.
If they treat a nuclear power plant as the treated the hydroelectric dam then scorched earth is taken to the extreme, fuck Russia.