The Zaporizhzhia accusations were the July 2023 exchange in which Russia and Ukraine each publicly charged the other with preparing a false-flag attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, then under Russian occupation. John Kiriakou offered a reading of the episode he acknowledged ran against intuition.
The mutual accusation as a deterrent
Asked about the standoff, Kiriakou prefaced his answer by conceding it might sound inverted: “this may be a little upside down, but I honestly think that the two sides, Russia and Ukraine, accusing each other of planning false flag operations at the Zaporizhia power plant is what prevented an attack on the Zaporizhia power plant, because they ratting each other out.”[1] He disclaimed any knowledge of who might have planned such a thing — “I have no idea who might have been responsible for even planning something like that” — but held that the accusations themselves “made everybody focus on it.”[2]
He cited the International Atomic Energy Agency, which had inspectors on site, as having stated that day that there were no explosives at the plant; the agency said it was unsure how the accusations had started, but that “at least today, there’s nothing to worry about.”[2]
The wider nuclear risk
Kiriakou did not treat the outcome as reassurance. Agreeing with the interviewer’s framing, he said the world was “probably closer to some sort of nuclear situation, whether it’s accidental or not, than we have been in generations. And that’s not good no matter how you look at it.”[3]
He extended the point to the unfinished business of earlier nuclear testing, noting that the United States was only then offering compensation and relocation to people affected by post-war testing in the South Pacific — “We’re talking about 70 years after the end of the war. It’s ridiculous.”[4]