Ukraine targets Russian border town with drones despite NPP

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
14 Jul 2023 23:31

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warns citizens of NATO countries that their governments are "sponsoring nuclear terrorism" by supplying Kiev with weapons.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova gestures while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (AP)

After a Ukrainian drone targeted the border town of Kurchatov, which has a nuclear power plant similar to Chernobyl, Moscow accused the collective West on Friday of "nuclear terrorism" after authorities said a Ukrainian drone had struck the western Russian town of Kurchatov, where a nuclear power station similar to the ill-fated Chernobyl plant is located.

Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia's Kursk region, announced that the attack impacted a residential building saying "a drone crashed in the town of Kurchatov overnight," adding that "Fortunately, none of the residents were injured. Critical facilities were not damaged as a result of the drone crash and its subsequent detonation."

In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova sarcastically warned the West via her Telegram channel saying: "Are the countries that supply them (the drones) to the Kiev regime planning to retire to Mars if there is a nuclear disaster? They won't have time."

Moreover, Zakharova addressed citizens of Western countries saying "People in NATO countries should realize that their governments are sponsoring nuclear terrorism through the Kiev regime."

The head of the Russian Rosatom State nuclear corporation, Alexei Likhachev, also commented, on Thursday, underlining that security at nuclear power plants was "under control" and confirming that necessary measures had been taken, which included air defense.

This comes after Russia accused the US in May of masterminding a drone attack on the Kremlin, pointing out that sabotage attacks by Ukraine behind Russian lines had reached "unprecedented momentum".

The Kremlin also stated, earlier, that Kiev attempted to strike the Kremlin residence of the Russian President with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Tuesday night -- a charge which Kiev has denied.

"Decisions on such attacks are not made in Kiev, but in Washington," Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a briefing, adding that "Kiev only does what it is told to do."

"Washington should understand clearly that we know this," he stressed.

Peskov slammed the attempts by Kiev and Washington to disown the attempted drone attack on the Kremlin as ridiculous.