Intelligence suggests that Russian President Vladimir Putin “ordered the preparation of a terrorist attack” at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry claimed Friday.
Russia plans to attack the facility, which is now under Russian control, and then try to pin the blame on Ukraine, the ministry said without providing evidence to support its claims.
“According to available information, Vladimir Putin has ordered the preparation of a terrorist attack at the Chernobyl NPP. The Russian-controlled Chernobyl nuclear power plant plans to create a man-made catastrophe, for which the occupiers will try to shift responsibility to Ukraine,” the Defense Ministry said in a Facebook post. “Such actions by Putin will have catastrophic results for the entire world.”
The ministry claimed the Russians refused to permit Ukrainian repairers into the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and instead granted “Belarusian specialists” access to the facility. Among the specialists were “Russian saboteurs” posing as nuclear scientists to orchestrate the attack, the agency said. Moscow used “refrigerated trucks collecting bodies of dead Ukrainian defenders” and could use those bodies as “killed saboteurs in the Chernobyl zone,” the ministry added.
CHERNOBYL SAFEGUARD SYSTEM NO LONGER TRANSMITTING DATA, NUCLEAR WATCHDOG SAYS
The State Department avoided direct comment on Ukraine’s allegations against Russia but condemned Russia’s takeover of the Chernobyl and called on Russia to withdraw from the facility.
“The United States condemns Russia for its incursion into the exclusion zone and its takeover of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” the State Department said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The best step for nuclear safety would be for Russia to immediately withdraw its forces around Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and not impede efforts to restore power and normal safe working conditions. Russia knows the importance of being a responsible nuclear power, and it should act like one.”
Ukraine has warned about the Kremlin’s plans to attack nuclear facilities. Earlier this week, Ukraine raised alarms about the main electrical line to the Chernobyl facility being disconnected. Ukrainian officials blamed Russia for the power failure and cautioned that if the facility’s backup gas supply ran out, the cooling system would go down, which could cause a “nuclear discharge.” Ukraine’s concerns were echoed by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Russia claimed Thursday that power was restored to the facility.
During the early stages of the war, Russia quickly took control of the Chernobyl facility, which safeguards radioactive nuclear waste from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Other nuclear facilities in Ukraine have reportedly been subject to military exchanges. On Thursday, Ukrainian officials claimed a Russian attack caused exterior damage to the Institute of Physics and Technology, located in Kharkiv. A military exchange between Ukrainian and Russian forces also caused a nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia to catch fire last week, but there were no reports of the incident triggering a major nuclear discharge.
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Both sides have accused the other of engaging in grotesque false flag operations. Russian officials have alleged Ukraine has contrived a plan to blow up a nuclear reactor in Kharkiv and blame Russia for the attack. The U.S. has accused Russia of scheming false flag operations to justify an escalation in Ukraine. More recently, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested Russia was promoting false propaganda about U.S. chemical weapons as a pretext for deploying such weapons against Ukraine.
