Putin accuses Ukraine of attempting to attack Kursk NPP, Ukraine warns of provocation

Putin said this during a meeting with the governors of the regions bordering Ukraine, RIA Novosti reports.

The Russian president said that the IAEA “has already been informed about Ukraine's attempts to strike the Kursk nuclear power plant” and allegedly promised to send experts.

At the same time, the acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said at the meeting that the situation at the Kursk NPP was “stable and under control.” According to him, everything is operating normally.

The accusation is groundless and indicates that the Russians themselves could carry out this provocation, said Andriy Kovalenko, head of the National Security and Defense Council's Center for Countering Disinformation.

The head of the Center noted that the scenario desired by the Russians with the storming of the Kursk nuclear power plant by Ukrainian troops for further accusation of nuclear terrorism has “fallen apart”. And now Putin has joined the propaganda of the nuclear terror threat.

He assumed that the Russians themselves could carry out this provocation and would try to bring it to the international level.

“The threat of a nuclear provocation by the Russian Federation is quite real, as Putin himself has already become involved,” the head of the Center for Public Policy summarized.

As a reminder, at the beginning of the Ukrainian operation in Kursk region, Russian propagandists and military bloggers suggested that the Ukrainian Armed Forces might target a nuclear power plant in response to the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. However, The Economist, citing its own sources, reported that the takeover of the Kursk NPP seems unlikely.

• On August 22, it was reported that IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi plans to visit the Kursk NPP in the coming days and then meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

• The International Atomic Energy Agency assured that it is “monitoring the situation related to military activities reportedly taking place in the area of the Kursk nuclear power plant.”