DISINFO: Ukraine intends to attack Kursk and Zaporizhzhia NPPs with ammunition containing radioactive substances
SUMMARY
[...] the enemy may strike the territories of the Kursk and Zaporizhia NPPs. The target is the storage sites for spent nuclear fuel. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are planning to use warheads containing radioactive substances to strike the Kursk and Zaporizhia NPPs. The warheads have already been delivered to the settlement of Zhovti Vody in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about nuclear threats in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
There is no evidence to back the claim that Ukraine is preparing to attack Kursk and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants, in Kurchatov and Enerhodar. These accusations against Ukraine are intended to cover up the Kremlin’s nuclear blackmail against Ukraine and the West, including threats to use tactical nuclear weapons and preparations for a deliberate nuclear catastrophe at the Russian-controlled NPPs.
Ukraine has always remained open to international experts in the field of nuclear energy and does not take any prohibited actions, as emphasised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. The Foreign Ministry recalled that Ukraine has always been, and remains, a faithful member of the Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Experts from the International Nuclear Energy Agency (IAEA) regularly visit locations in Ukraine and have never found any signs of prohibited activities by Ukraine. For example, in August 2024, the IAEA Mission, as part of an agreement on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, checked the South Ukrainian NPP, and in June - the Khmelnytska NPP. The IAEA also conducted an in-depth inspection with additional access at the hydrometallurgical plant and at the Smolynska uranium mine of the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in the city of Zhovti Vody. All inspections conducted by international experts for the presence of illegal nuclear materials have been successfully passed by Ukraine.
Moreover, Russia, not Ukraine, has seized another country's nuclear facility and is using the Zaporizhzhia NPP to conduct hostilities against Ukraine. In April, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell stressed that the drone attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant increases the risk of a nuclear accident and that Russia should withdraw from there.
Russia has previously conducted irresponsible actions regarding this facility, including placing military equipment and troops inside its premises, using its surroundings as a base for rocket and missile attacks, and interrupting its power line. In addition, Russia rejected UN proposals to demilitarise the areas surrounding the plant, as it was waging a fear campaign about the risks of a nuclear disaster in order to advance its goals in Ukraine.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Ukraine is preparing a provocation with a dirty nuclear bomb, that Kyiv is preparing a "dirty bomb" near Zaporizhzhia and Kursk nuclear power plants, that the Zaporizhzhia NPP was heavily attacked with drones by the Kyiv regime that the US wants to prepare the world for a provocation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP, that Zelenskyy being pushed to attack the Zaporizhzhia NPP, that Ukraine has used chemical weapons in Kursk, and that Ukraine is trying to create a "second Chernobyl" inside Russia.