MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia accused Ukraine on Friday of attacking the Kursk nuclear power plant overnight in what it called an act of “nuclear terrorism”, days before the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog was due to visit the site .
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the accusation, the second made by Moscow in two days.
The nuclear power plant is located in the Kursk region of western Russia, where heavy fighting has raged since Ukrainian forces launched a surprise raid on August 6, repelling as Russian forces advanced in eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that its air defense units shot down three Ukrainian drones in the Kursk region overnight and spoke of thwarting a Ukrainian attempt to carry out “a terrorist attack” on Russian facilities .
Russia’s state news agency TASS quoted an unnamed source as saying a drone had been shot down near a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at the Kursk power plant. Reuters could not independently confirm details of the alleged incident.
TASS quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying it was an “act of nuclear terrorism” that required an immediate response from the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, will visit the power plant next week. He has called for maximum restraint to avoid a nuclear accident.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Thursday of trying to attack the facility and said Moscow had informed the IAEA. He provided no details or evidence of a Ukrainian attack.
The Ukrainian invasion of Kursk on August 6, in which thousands of Ukrainian troops crossed the Russian border, is the largest invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War II and took Moscow by surprise.
Kiev has said it has created a buffer zone in an area that Russia, which has sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine in 2022, has used to storm targets in Ukraine.
Since then, fighting has raged about 20 miles (30 km) from the nuclear power plant, as Russian forces battle to drive out Ukrainian soldiers who have tried to consolidate and expand the area they control.
The plant has four reactors, two of which are operational. In 2018, construction of two more reactors began.
Russia’s state nuclear company Rosenergoatom said on Friday that unit number 4 of the plant would be disconnected from the power grid on Sunday for what it called “scheduled preventive maintenance” that would last 59 days. It said the work would involve modernizing and extending the life of the equipment.
