As the Cabinet of Ministers reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Ukrainian forces tried to hit the Kursk nuclear power plant as they advanced in their offensive against the Kursk region on Thursday.
He said that Ukrainian forces had tried to hit the atomic power plant overnight at a cabinet meeting, RT reported. "Last night, the enemy attempted to strike the atomic power plant," Putin said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday afternoon, RT reported.
"We've already informed the International Atomic Energy Agency. They replied that they will come personally and will send experts to take stock of the situation. I hope this is really going to happen," he said.
Now, the International Atomic Energy Agency now has observers at Europe's largest nuclear power facility, Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which has been under close supervision since summer 2023 after several attempts by Ukrainian forces to retake it from Russian forces. Just this month, there were reports of a Ukrainian drone attack said to have set a fire at one of the cooling towers of the plant, according to Russian sources.
Requests were made by Grossi to most European nations, including Switzerland, Spain, and even the United Kingdom. The Kursk and Zaporozhye plants' heads of two companies are mentioned in the negotiated offer by Likhachev to Grossi for a visit to Kursk. If the Russian-media reports held anything, then Grossi was ready to visit Kursk next week and afterward travel to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Grossi warned that any military activity "very close" to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, with reactors similar to those at Chernobyl—where in that incident the core was exposed—was a source of great personal alarm for him and his agency. "The fact that there are some forces approaching the artillery reach is a major concern for me and for the agency," he said but did not specify which.
For months, Moscow has blasted the IAEA for refusing to point a finger at who is attacking the nuclear sites, claiming that it knows well that it is Ukraine but chooses to turn a blind eye.
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