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Introduction – Aug 13, 2022

Often it almost seems as if the Western MSM is in the pay of Western intelligence. The run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion comes to mind when the media subjected us to a steady stream of reports about Saddam Hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction.

As it turned out those reports were all entirely baseless, Saddam never had any WMD. But those stories were used to justify an invasion in the face of widespread public opposition. Prompting one to wonder if media bosses and owners were acting on the instructions of Western intelligence?

Something along the lines of – follow such and such reporting policy on Iraq and we’ll give you selected insider info and tip-offs in return.

That’s certainly the impression one gets from the Guardian’s coverage of events in Ukraine right now. For example the Russians took the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in early March but now, the Guardian reports, the Russians are using it as a shield. From which to launch rocket attacks on Ukrainian civilians in nearby Nikopol, safe in the knowledge the Ukrainians will be reluctant to retaliate for fear of damaging the nuclear facility.

Or so the Guardian would have us believe.

For its part the Ukrainian government’s explanation is even less plausible. With the Zelensky regime claiming in the following report that the Russians themselves are firing at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in an effort to discredit Ukraine.

Both of these narratives ignore the fact that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is closer to Crimea and the Russian border than Kiev. In other words, any nuclear fallout from Zaporizhzhia will inevitably impact Russia, some its prime agricultural land and its foremost local holiday destination.

Radius of potential radioactive contamination from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Click to enlarge

As the map on the right shows, large areas of southern Russia would be badly affected by radioactive contamination if the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was damaged.

So it doesn’t make sense for Russia to bombard the facility but the Guardian article is disinformation and it’s aimed at stirring emotions. Not making sense.

So instead of actually investigating who is behind the rocket attacks on the Zaporizhzhia facility, the Guardian takes the opportunity to gather some ripe anti-Russian quotes from locals in Nikopol.

Think about that for a moment.

It would have been a simple matter for reporters visiting Nikopol to drive the seven kilometres to the Zaporizhzhia facility to investigate who was behind the rocket attacks but the Guardian reporters don’t bother.

If they had been genuinely interested in finding out what happened they could have taken a short drive to question a few Russian soldiers. So why didn’t they?

This all suggests that the Guardian has another agenda and establishing the truth is not part of it. Ed

‘It’s madness’: Ukraine holds breath as Putin turns nuclear plant into frontline

Luke Harding and Christopher Cherry – The Guardian Aug 13, 2022

On one side of the Dnieper River is the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, visible in the haze. Six nuclear reactors and a cooling tower loom over a Soviet-built reservoir. On the opposite bank is Nikopol, a city in southern Ukraine known for its Cossack past and modern tube and metallurgical factories.

The distance between them is seven kilometres. Or, measured in rocket terms, about 15 seconds: the time it takes for a Grad missile fired by Russian soldiers ensconced in the atomic station to slam into Nikopol’s chestnut tree-lined boulevards. It is a small and terrifying interval between life and death.

The sprawling nuclear plant is Europe’s largest. In March, Russian forces seized it, as part of Vladimir Putin’s blitzkrieg operation to capture the whole of Ukraine. They rolled into the nearby city of Enerhodar and took the station’s local staff hostage. The plant is now on the frontline between Russian-occupied and Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Continues …