The Russian chief presents no proof for his declare however says the UN nuclear watchdog has been alerted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Ukrainian forces tried to assault the Kursk nuclear energy plant in a nighttime raid.
The Russian chief provided no proof for the declare, however stated Thursday that Moscow knowledgeable the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the Worldwide Atomic Power Company (IAEA), concerning the incident.
Ukraine has not responded to Russia’s accusations.
“The enemy tried to assault the nuclear energy plant at evening. The IAEA has been knowledgeable,” Putin stated at a televised authorities assembly.
Putin made the declare as Ukrainian forces continued to struggle inside Russia greater than two weeks after launching an formidable cross-border assault that has change into an embarrassing headache for Moscow.
Whereas the strategic targets of the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk stay unsure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Thursday that the assault is a part of an effort to finish the battle on phrases acceptable to Ukraine.
Throughout a go to to the northern area of Sumy, the place his forces launched their shock offensive into Russia, Zelenskyy stated Ukraine’s navy had taken management of one other Russian village and captured extra prisoners of battle.
The incursions into Russian territory have additionally offered a much-needed increase to Ukrainian morale within the battle, analysts stated.
Russian and Ukrainian forces fought about 30 kilometers from the Kursk nuclear plant, prompting a name for restraint on either side from Rafael Grossi, director basic of the IAEA, on August 9.
Kursk’s appearing governor, Alexei Smirnov, advised Putin that the plant, which homes 4 Soviet-era nuclear reactors, stays “steady.”
This isn’t the primary time Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations of reckless assaults on nuclear vegetation since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In 2022, Russian forces quickly took over the deserted Chernobyl nuclear energy plant in northern Ukraine, a transfer the IAEA criticized on the time as “very, very harmful.”
Russian troops additionally management Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear plant and have accused Ukraine of launching “harmful” drone assaults within the space round Europe’s largest nuclear energy plant. kyiv has denied the accusations, calling them “false.”