Oleksiy Arestovych worked very closely with Zelensky until January 2023, when he was removed from office after publicly admitting, among other things, that the Ukrainian military was to blame for the destruction of an apartment building in the city of Dnipro and the deaths of 46 people, which at the time were blamed on Russia.
After repeatedly criticizing the decisions and competence of the Zelensky administration during the war, he fell even further out of favour and felt compelled to flee the country for fear of being arrested by the country’s intelligence services.
Through social media, interviews and video, he has continued to comment on the war and in a recent interview with a Ukrainian journalist, he reveals that the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service – Kirill Budanov – has developed a plan that could be fatal for the whole of Europe.
The plan is to blow up all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants – and possibly some of Russia’s as well – if all other defenses fail and the war is deemed lost.
‼️ IMPORTANT: “(The Americans) perceive us as a monkey with a grenade!”
(The Americans) know about our plans to blow up all the nuclear power plants, if Ukraine loses.
They are not taking away our property, but want to control the things that are dangerously to humanity.”… pic.twitter.com/uFK673JZxq
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) March 22, 2025
Under US control?
There are currently four active nuclear power plants with a total of 15 reactors in the country. The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is the largest in Europe and was taken over by Russian troops in March 2022, shortly after the war started. In Russia, there are a further 37 reactors spread across 11 nuclear power plants.
The exact impact on life in the region if all or any of these reactors were to blow up is difficult to determine – but the consequences of such an event could be absolutely devastating, according to analysts.
Arestovych raised the issue in the context of Trump’s proposal to put Ukrainian nuclear power plants under US control – a proposal that the US President has also reportedly discussed with his Ukrainian counterpart.
“A monkey with a hand grenade”
Officially, according to the White House, this would be the “best protection” for the country’s nuclear infrastructure, but Zelensky’s former adviser believes that in reality it is more about the Trump administration knowing Kiev’s doomsday plans and wanting to avoid them being realized.
– They perceive us as a monkey with a grenade. And they simply want to take dangerous toys under their control, says Arestovych.
– They know about our plans to blow up all nuclear power plants if Ukraine loses, he explains.
“Take everyone with us”
According to Arestovych, the idea started to be discussed among the Ukrainian leadership already 1.5 years ago, and there was talk of blowing up both their own nuclear power plants – but also the Russian reactors they have the capacity to reach with their weapons.
– The principle is that if we’re going to die, we’re going to take everyone with us, he continues, describing Zelensky and his inner circle as a “group of deranged people“.
The ex-adviser also says that already during the Biden administration, the US tried more cautiously to take control of Ukrainian nuclear power plants – but the Trump administration is more explicit and clear in this endeavor.
He also says that Ukrainian oligarchs are currently trying to raise money to finance a Ukrainian nuclear weapons program.
