The United States currently sees no signs that a Russian blow-up of the Zaporizhzhia NPP is imminent and continues to closely monitor the situation at the plant.
This was stated by the official representative of the National Security Council of the White House John Kirby during the briefing.
"Iʼm not going to go into specific intelligence. I would tell you that we are watching this very closely. We have seen this report. We have, as you know, the ability to monitor radioactivity near the station, and we just havenʼt seen any indication that this threat is imminent, but weʼre watching it very, very closely," he noted.
Also, the USA does not yet see signs that Russia will use nuclear weapons.
"And we have not seen any signs — apart from loud rhetoric — that there is an intention to use nuclear weapons inside Ukraine. And I can also assure you that we havenʼt done anything and we havenʼt seen anything that would cause us to change our strategic posture of deterrence," Kirby added.
- On June 20, the head of intelligence Kyrylo Budanov said that Russia had mined the cooling pond at the ZNPP, on June 21, the IAEA said that no mines were found in the cooling pond, but there are mines outside the plant, as well as in certain places inside (the Russians explained this as "defense purpose"). On June 22, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia is preparing a terrorist attack with the release of radiation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP.
- Against this background, headquarters were deployed in Ukraine, which included energy workers, rescuers, police and medics. In the coming days, training will be conducted with road closures, deployment of sanitary checkpoints, etc. Equipment for measuring radiation is ready.
- On June 25, Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with The New Statement that Russia had completed preparations for a terrorist attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
- The head of Ukrainian intelligence Kyrylo Budanov also said on June 20 that preparations for the placement of Russian tactical nuclear weapons are underway in Belarus. Warheads have not yet been transported.