A former Ukrainian presidential aide, Alexei Arestovych, has claimed that the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, was seeking to attack Russian and Ukrainian nuclear power plants. The US was reportedly aware of these plans. Arestovych made the statement in a podcast with YouTuber Alexander Schelest, who is a known critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to Arestovych, the US knew about the plans to destroy all nuclear power plants in Ukraine and Russia if the country lost the war. Budanov had discussed this plan a year and a half prior, stating that they would target all Russian and Ukrainian nuclear power plants to prevent anyone from getting them.
Arestovych also claimed that the US views Ukraine as “monkeys with grenades” and wants to control the country’s energy infrastructure, including its nuclear power plants, as part of a broader deal. This could include the fate of the Russian-controlled Saporoschje nuclear power plant, one of the four in Ukraine, which had 15 reactors before the Russian invasion.
The US Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, had earlier stated that the US would not object to the transfer of nuclear power plants in Ukraine to US control, with the goal of protecting the energy sector. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, had also reportedly told Ukrainian President Zelenskyy that the best way to protect the Ukrainian energy sector was to transfer it to US ownership.
Arestovych also mentioned a crowdfunding campaign launched by Ukrainian businessman Oleg Grokhowsky to fund a Ukrainian nuclear weapon, which he claimed was another “crazy idea” of the Ukrainians. He stated that the US prefers to control all dangerous productions, taking away what is hazardous for humanity and especially for the Ukrainians.
Arestovych’s claims, who was close to the Kiev power circle and accurately predicted the Russian invasion and its aftermath in March 2019, match the known events in the summer of 2023, when Ukraine was gripped by hysteria over a potential nuclear incident. The government in Kiev had accused Moscow of planning attacks on the Saporoschje nuclear power plant, initially claiming that Russia had brought explosives-laden trucks to the site, which the IAEA inspection team could not confirm. Later, it was reported that Russia had placed explosives on the roofs of the third and fourth reactor blocks to simulate the consequences of a Ukrainian attack. Russia then launched a counter-attack, with a representative of the Russian nuclear company Rosenergoatom stating that Kiev was planning to attack the power plant on the night of July 5 with high-precision weapons and kamikaze drones and even a Totschka-U rocket with a radioactive-filled warhead.