“The people of NATO countries must realize that their governments are sponsoring nuclear terrorism.”
Moscow:
Russia on Friday accused the West of sponsoring “nuclear terrorism” after officials said a Ukrainian drone had struck the western Russian city of Kurchatov, where a nuclear power station similar to the ill-fated Chernobyl plant is located.
Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region bordering Ukraine, said Ukrainian drones had struck a residential apartment building in Kurchatov, a Soviet-era town built on the banks of the cooling pond for the Kursk nuclear power station which is still in service. ,
“Overnight a drone crashed in the city of Kurchatov,” Starovoit said on the Telegram messaging app. “Fortunately, no residents were injured. Vital facilities were not damaged as a result of the drone crash and subsequent explosion.”
The only damage was to the facade and glazing of an apartment building, he said, adding that authorities would help residents restore their homes.
There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine, which regularly falls victim to large-scale Russian drone attacks and rarely comments on its own suspected drone and sabotage attacks inside Russia.
russian fury
The incident, which comes after Russia said it destroyed two Ukrainian drones near the Kremlin in May, drew a sharp reaction from the Russian Foreign Ministry over the drones’ proximity to a nuclear power station.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said sarcastically, “Are the countries supplying drones to the Kiev regime planning to go to Mars if there is a nuclear disaster? They won’t have time.”
“The people of NATO countries must realize that their governments are sponsoring nuclear terrorism by the Kiev regime.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s air defense systems were working effectively amid unconfirmed social media reports that such systems were used to thwart a drone strike, but added that it was clear that Ukraine is trying to attack targets inside Russia.
Russia’s FSB security service said in August last year that security around the nuclear facilities had been strengthened after people said Ukrainian saboteurs had destroyed power lines supplying the Kursk nuclear power plant. Due to which its functioning was temporarily disrupted.
Alexey Likhachev, the head of Russia’s Rosatom state nuclear corporation, told state TV on Thursday that safety at nuclear power plants was “under control” and that all necessary measures, including air defense capabilities, had been taken.
Russia and Ukraine have long accused each other of risking a nuclear holocaust through shelling at another facility – the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on Russian-controlled territory in southern Ukraine.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV Staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)