Russia coordinates with IAEA director a visit to Kursk nuclear power plant in the midst of Ukrainian offensive

Archive image of the Kursk nuclear power plant in western Russia. – ROSATOM

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Putin denounces a Ukrainian attempt to attack a nuclear power plant and urges the IAEA to send specialists to the site to assess the situation

MADRID, 22 (EUROPA PRESS)

Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, held a meeting on Thursday with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, to coordinate a future visit to the Kursk nuclear power plant, the region that was the scene of a ground incursion by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“Today he met with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and discussed practical issues related to his upcoming visit to the Kursk nuclear power plant,” Ulyanov’s official Telegram account posted, adding a photo of the meeting.

The day before, Ulyanov himself had said that Grossi had promised to visit the Kursk nuclear power plant “next week.” “I suspect that the visit will most likely take place at the beginning of next week, rather than at the end of it,” the Russian representative said at the time.

Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin himself spoke out on the matter and denounced that Ukraine “tried to attack a nuclear power plant tonight,” urging IAEA representatives to travel to Russian territory to learn about the situation first-hand.

“The IAEA has been informed, they promise to come and send specialists to assess the situation. I hope they will do so in the end,” Putin said during a meeting on security issues with top representatives of the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions, located on the Ukrainian border.

The Kursk nuclear power plant is located in the town of Kurchatov, some 60 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, which launched a ground incursion into the region in early August, thanks to which it now controls nearly a hundred border towns and some 1,250 square kilometres of Russian territory.

Since the beginning of this Ukrainian offensive on Russian territory, Moscow has repeatedly warned of the risk to the Kursk nuclear power plant – and also to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, located in southern Ukraine but under Russian control for more than two years – from Ukrainian attacks.