The Russian authorities today accused Ukraine of trying to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant with a ‘kamikaze drone’, a site that the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, will soon visit.
On Thursday night, ‘the Kyiv regime tried to commit an act of nuclear terrorism with a “kamikaze drone” at a nuclear power plant located in Kurchatov, in the Kursk region,’ the Russian authorities denounced, quoted by the TASS news agency.
‘A Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant,’ the Russian security services reported, explaining that the drone's warhead contained an anti-tank grenade.
These events demand an ‘immediate response’ from the IAEA, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
The United Nations nuclear agency confirmed on Thursday that Russia had reported the discovery of the remains of a drone a few meters from the Kursk nuclear power plant, a region partly occupied by Ukraine.
According to the agency, the fragments of the drone were found about 100 metres from the plant's spent nuclear fuel depot, after it was intercepted ‘in the early hours of 22 August’.
‘Military activity in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant poses a serious risk to nuclear safety,’ warned IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, without specifying from whom the drone shot down in the area of the plant originated.
The head of the UN agency also announced a visit to the site next week.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of launching the attack on the plant, which Kyiv denied hours later in an exchange of accusations between the parties.
The IAEA has urged the warring parties to avoid hostilities in the vicinity of nuclear power plants, particularly the Ukrainian plant at Zaporijia, occupied by Russia since March 2022.
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