The Russian military will unleash a swift retaliation if Ukraine launches an attack on the Kursk nuclear power plant, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has warned. The nuclear facility is located not far from the frontline following Kiev’s cross-border incursion into Russia.
In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said it was taking very seriously reports of Kiev’s plans to attack the Kursk NPP, located about 90 km from the Ukraine-Russia border, which has become the scene of fierce fighting in recent days.
According to the military, the purpose of such a “provocation” would be to accuse Russia of attacking the plant.
“If the Kiev regime begins to realize its criminal plans aimed at creating a man-made disaster in the European part of the continent that would infer the radioactive contamination of vast territories, tough military and military-technical countermeasures will be taken immediately”.
While the ministry did not give details of a possible retaliation, it noted that Kiev’s preparations for an attack on the Kursk plant – which Moscow claims are backed by the West – would contradict a UN resolution on combating nuclear terrorism.
The statement comes after Russian military journalist Marat Khairullin reported on Friday, citing sources, that Kiev was “preparing a nuclear false flag – an explosion of a dirty atomic bomb” which would target “the storage sites of spent nuclear fuel of a nuclear power plant.”
According to the reporter, the strike could be launched on either Russia’s Zaporozhye NPP in Energodar – also not far from the frontline and the largest facility of its type in Europe – or the Kursk NPP in Kurchatov. Ukraine has vehemently denied the allegations.
According to Russian officials, the Kursk plant, which is crucial for the power supply of several neighboring regions, continues to operate normally.