Putin accuses Ukraine of trying to attack Kursk nuclear plant

AFP | London

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday accused Kyiv of trying to attack the Kursk nuclear power station, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from where Ukrainian forces are mounting a major cross-border offensive. The Kremlin leader did not present any evidence for his claims or provide further details on the alleged attack.

The claim comes hours after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its chief would visit the facility next week, with Russia having repeatedly sounded the alarm over a possible hit since Ukrainian troops and tanks stormed into its western Kursk region on August 6. That offensive has now dragged into its third week, with Kyiv laying claim to dozens of Russian border settlements and Russia scrambling to fight off the most serious attack by a foreign army on its territory since World War II.

“The enemy tried to strike the nuclear power plant at night, the IAEA has been informed,” Putin said in a televised government meeting yesterday. There were no previous reports of the attempted strike on the facility in Russian media. Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov told Putin the facility was working as usual. There was no immediate reaction from officials in Kyiv to Putin’s claim. Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations of threatening nuclear safety throughout the 2.5-year conflict.

Russian troops seized the abandoned Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant -- Europe’s largest -- in the first days of its full-scale military offensive. It still controls the Zaporizhzhia site, and has been accused of “nuclear blackmail” by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Moscow, in turn, claims Ukrainian forces have tried to strike the plant on multiple occasions with drones. Earlier this month a fire broke out in one of the Zaporizhzhia plant’s cooling towers.

Russia said it was the result of a Ukrainian attack, while Kyiv said Russia had purposefully started the blaze. After Ukraine launched its armed incursion into the Kursk region, the IAEA urged both Russia and Ukraine to exercise “maximum restraint” to “avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences”. Ukraine’s shock assault on Russian territory has upended the course of the conflict, reinvigorating Ukrainian morale two and a half years into the conflict.