Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused Ukraine of attempting to attack a nuclear plant in the Russian region of Kursk, as Kyiv continues its cross-border incursion in the country.
Putin said during a televised government meeting that Ukraine “tried to strike the nuclear power plant at night ... the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been informed.”
The IAEA, a U.N. agency, has not issued a public statement on the Russian president’s allegation. Ukraine also has not issued any public comments on the claim.
In Ukraine’s Aug. 6 incursion into Kursk, the biggest into Russia by a foreign power since World War II, thousands of Ukrainian troops entered Russia’s western border, apparently catching Moscow by surprise.
Fierce fighting was reported about 18 miles from the Kursk nuclear plant and has since then raged as Russian troops battle to dislodge the Ukrainian soldiers, who have sought to consolidate and expand the territory they control.
The Kursk plant, he warned, is “technically within artillery range” of Ukraine’s positions in the region. “And since there is combat, I’m very concerned,” he told the paper.
The nuclear station is about 30 miles to the west of the city of Kursk, which has about 500,000 people. Grossi described it as “a Chernobyl-type plant,” with the reactor core ”totally exposed,” referring to the Ukrainian power plant that melted down in 1986, prompting everyone in its immediate vicinity to permanently evacuate.
“I’ve visited a few of these. You can walk around and see the fuel elements that go down, as if it was a sports hall or something,” he said, adding that there are still two fully functioning reactors.
During the Putin meeting, acting Kursk Gov. Alexei Smirnov told the Russian leader that the situation at the Kursk plant was stable, while he added that 133,190 people had left or had been evacuated from his region.
Bryansk Gov. Alexander Bogomaz told Putin that border forces had repelled an attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance team from entering the region, which lies northwest of Kursk.
Since early August, Ukraine has been able to capture a number of towns and villages in Kursk and hold positions in the region. Meanwhile, Russia is continuing to advance its position in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, more than two years after the full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
On Thursday, Smirnov said that Russian forces have started to install shelters amid the attack.
Ukraine has said its forces have continued to push forward in the region, adding that its 22nd land forces brigade took more prisoners of war this week.
It also noted that Moscow appears to be initiating a “messaging campaign” across Russia that it will prioritize its military activity in eastern Ukraine over repelling Ukraine’s forces in Kursk.
