Western countries are encouraging Ukraine to conduct attacks on Russia’s nuclear sites, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed. She made the comment after a Ukrainian drone crashed in the city of Kurchatov, adjacent to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant.
“The countries that supply [drones] to Kiev – do they plan to resettle on Mars in case of a nuclear disaster?” Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel on Friday.
“The people in NATO countries must understand that their governments are sponsoring nuclear terrorism carried out by Kiev.”
Zakharova’s statement came after a UAV exploded and crashed in Kurchatov early Friday morning, damaging a residential building. The city, which is named after nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov, was founded in the late 1960s to serve the nearby power plant. It is also home to companies that manufacture parts for nuclear reactors.
Russia’s border regions of Kursk, Bryansk, and Belgorod have frequently come under attack since Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine last year. In early May, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had caught a group of Ukrainian agents that were planning acts of sabotage on nuclear power plants in Leningrad and Tver Regions.
Moscow has also accused Ukrainian troops of shelling the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which sits close to the front line. Kiev, in turn, claimed that Russian troops rigged the facility with explosives. While the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), announced this week that its inspectors found no evidence of Ukraine's claims, it did report heaving heard explosions at or near the site over the past week.