DISINFO: NATO may use Zaporizhzhia incident as a pretext to join combat in Ukraine
SUMMARY
Several Western politicians, such as British MP Tobias Ellwood and US representative Adam Kinzinger, have declared that a radiation leak in the nuclear plant of Zaporizhzhia as a consequence of the bombing may be a pretext for NATO to start taking part in the combat in Ukraine.
RESPONSE
The claim is a disingenuous distortion of facts to support an ongoing pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign about the incidents surrounding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Although it is true that both Tobias Ellwood and Adam Kinzinger mentioned NATO Article 5 in reference to the events in Zaporizhzhia, the meaning of their words was the opposite of what this disinformation story claims.
On 19 August 2022, Tobias Ellwood wrote on his Twitter account: “ANY deliberate damage causing potential radiation leak to a Ukrainian nuclear reactor would be a breach of NATO’s Article 5”, linking it to a screen capture of an article from The Times with the headline: “Russia ‘plotting false-flag attack’ on nuclear plant”. Rep. Kinzinger replied to this tweet, adding: “This really isn’t even up for debate. Any leak will kill people in NATO countries, that’s an automatic article 5”.
In this context, it is clear that both politicians are talking about how any deliberate Russian action leading to the spread of nuclear radiation in NATO countries should be considered an attack on them and prompt a coordinated defensive response as established in the Article 5 of the Atlantic Alliance Chart. This is radically different than affirming that NATO may use it as a “pretext” to join the combat in Ukraine, as this disinformation story does. The claim is part of a wider pro-Kremlin campaign accusing Ukraine and its allies of preparing a false-flag incident in Zaporizhzhia.
See other examples of similar disinformation messages in our database, such as claims that the West is preparing possible CBRN provocations in Zaporizhzhia, that Washington and the Kyiv regime’s actions pose a threat of nuclear catastrophe, that Ukraine shelled this nuclear plant to deploy international peacekeeping forces, or that Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporizhzhia plant show that the US does not accept defeat.