Russia Issues Nuclear Warning Amid Ukraine’s Kursk Invasion

On Saturday, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Ukrainian forces of preparing to attack a Russian nuclear facility in the Kursk region, according to Tass, a Russian state-run outlet.

Since a surprise attack on August 6, Ukrainian forces have pressed into the Russian Kursk area over the past two weeks, branching into the neighboring area of Belgorod. The incursion marks the largest assault on Russian soil since World War II, involving an estimated 10,000 Ukrainian troops equipped with armor and artillery, according to military analysts.

A Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson previously clarified that Kyiv does not intend to occupy the Russian territory it has seized. The objective, they said, is to prevent Moscow from launching missile strikes into Ukraine from Kursk.

“According to the incoming information, the Kiev Regime has started the preparation of an attack on the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant,” Zakharova said. The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which lays just around 25 miles west of the city, is a major electricity producer for Russia.

She did not, however, provide what the incoming information indicated.

“We call on the international organizations – in particular, the United Nations and the [International Atomic Energy Agency] IAEA – to immediately state their condemnation of the provocative actions begin prepared by the Kiev regime, and to prevent a violation of nuclear and physical security of the Kursk NPP, which may result in a large-scale man-made disaster in Europe,” Zakharova added.

IAEA, which came into force in 1957, is the U.N.’s international center for cooperation in the nuclear field.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministries for comment via email on Saturday. It also reached out to IAEA for comment via email on Saturday.

“The entire international community must realize the danger, posed by the neo-Nazi Kiev regime for the entire European continent,” Zakharova said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly and without evidence labeled the Ukrainian government, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, as a “neo-Nazi regime,” using this unfounded claim to justify Russia’s invasion of the Eastern European nation in February 2022.

The United States and European Union (EU) have provided diplomatic and military aid support to Ukraine in its over two-and-a-half-year long war with Moscow.

On Saturday, the IAEA released a press statement on the “deteriorating” nuclear safety situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) after a drone strike hit a nearby road. The nuclear plant—Europe’s largest—has been under Russian control since early March 2022, just days after Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. It was one of the first sites to be seized by Russian forces.

A fire was reported at the plant last Sunday, with Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of starting the blaze.

“I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides and for strict observance of the five concrete principles established for the protection of the plant,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Saturday. “Nuclear power plants are designed to be resilient against technical or human failures and external events including extreme ones, but they are not built to withstand a direct military attack, and neither are they supposed to, just as with any other energy facility in the world,” Grossi said.

He added: “This latest attack highlights the vulnerability of such facilities in conflict zones and the need to continue monitoring the fragile situation.”