Ukraine planned to seize a nuclear power plant during its large-scale incursion into Kursk Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported, adding that officials in Kiev had incorrectly assumed that a potential accident would only be harmful to Russia.
Speaking at a media briefing, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces (RChBD), claimed that one of Ukraine’s priority targets for the August incursion – which has since been contained – was the Kursk nuclear power plant, located some 60km from the border.
He also claimed that the Defense Ministry had gained access to a report from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, which dismissed any dangers to the country stemming from this operation. The document, the general said, insisted that “only the Russian Federation would be exposed to radioactive contamination in the event of an accident” because of the direction of the wind.
“However, it is more likely that the situation could have developed according to a completely different scenario… In the event of a large-scale accident at the NPP, radioactive substances would have spread over a significant part of Europe, as was the case with the accident at the Chernobyl NPP,” Kirillov pointed out.
The Defense Ministry also noted that Kiev had planned to commit 20,000 troops, 27 tanks, 50 armored vehicles and dozens of artillery pieces and missile systems to the push to capture the facility.
After failing to seize the Kursk NPP, Ukraine tried to recapture the Zaporozhye NPP, the largest facility of its kind in Europe, which has been under Russian control since the early days of the conflict, Kirillov said. According to the general, Ukrainian special forces had planned to achieve this goal, but the operation was thwarted by the pre-emptive actions of Russian troops.
Kirillov also accused Ukraine of long-standing “nuclear blackmail.” In particular, he cited Vladimir Zelensky’s stated plan to make the country a nuclear power again in February 2022, and his recent conversation with Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump, in which the Ukrainian leader asked for accelerated NATO membership, or permission to acquire nuclear weapons to deter Russia.
“The special military operation has prevented Ukraine from implementing its own nuclear program,” the general said, warning, however, that Kiev has sufficient technical expertise to create a “dirty bomb,” a combination of conventional explosives with radioactive material that can spread radiation over a targeted area.