Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused Kyiv of trying to attack the Kursk nuclear power station, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from where Ukrainian forces are mounting a major cross-border offensive.
The Kremlin leader did not present any evidence for his claims or provide further details on the alleged attack.
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The claim comes hours after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its chief would visit the facility next week, with Russia having repeatedly sounded the alarm over a possible hit since Ukrainian troops and tanks stormed into its western Kursk region on Aug. 6.
That offensive has now dragged into its third week, with Kyiv laying claim to dozens of Russian border settlements and Russia scrambling to fight off the most serious attack by a foreign army on its territory since World War II.
“The enemy tried to strike the nuclear power plant at night, the IAEA has been informed,” Putin said in a televised government meeting on Thursday.
There were no previous reports of the attempted strike on the facility in Russian media.
Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov told Putin the facility was working as usual.
There was no immediate reaction from officials in Kyiv to Putin’s claim.
“Maximum restraint”
Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations of threatening nuclear safety throughout the 2.5-year conflict.
Russian troops seized the Chornobyl power plant in northern Ukraine and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – in the first days of its full-scale military offensive.
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It still controls the Zaporizhzhia site and has been accused of “nuclear blackmail” by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Moscow, in turn, claims Ukrainian forces have tried to strike the plant on multiple occasions with drones.
Earlier this month a fire broke out in one of the Zaporizhzhia plant’s cooling towers.
Russia said it was the result of a Ukrainian attack, while Kyiv said Russia had purposefully started the blaze.
After Ukraine launched its armed incursion into the Kursk region, the IAEA urged both Russia and Ukraine to exercise “maximum restraint” to “avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences.”
“Strengthen defense”
Ukraine’s shock assault on Russian territory has upended the course of the conflict, reinvigorating Ukrainian morale two and a half years into the conflict.
Zelensky on Thursday visited his commander-in-chief in the Sumy border region, from where Ukraine is pouring troops and military hardware into Russia.
But Kyiv’s troops are still facing grinding setbacks in the eastern Donetsk region, where they have been under pressure for months.
On Thursday, Russia claimed to have captured another small village there.
In Russia, Putin has been accused of publicly downplaying the seriousness of the Ukrainian incursion.
Kursk Governor Smirnov said Thursday that 133,000 people have fled or been evacuated from border districts since Ukraine launched the attack.
Concrete air-raid shelters were being installed in cities across the region on Thursday, including Kurchatov, next to the Kursk nuclear power plant.
And more than 110 Russian schools located close to the border will teach classes remotely when the academic year starts in September, the education minister said Thursday.
Russia’s FSB security service said on Thursday that it had launched a criminal case against several journalists, including CNN correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, for having “illegally” crossed the border after they reported from the Kursk region.
The offensive has further knocked already minimal hopes that the two sides could be prepared to start discussing a possible peace settlement.
Moscow has ruled out direct talks with Kyiv amid the Kursk attack, while Zelensky had already said he will not deal directly with Putin and demands Moscow pull its troops completely out of Ukraine, including Crimea, and pay reparations.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine on Friday in a bid to kick-start stalled diplomacy over the conflict.
“It is India’s strong belief that no problem can be resolved on a battlefield,” Modi said in Warsaw on Thursday, adding that his country supports “dialogue and diplomacy for restoration of peace and stability as soon as possible.”
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