Russia is considering shutting down a nuclear power plant in its border Kursk region amid an ongoing incursion launched by Ukraine last month, the head of Russia’s atomic energy agency said.
Rosatom Director General Alexei Likhachev made the comments on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s Vladivostok on Thursday, state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.
A view of the Kursk nuclear power plant outside the town of Kurchatov on August 27, 2024. UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi kicked off a visit on August 27, 2024, to “independently assess” conditions at Russia’s Kursk nuclear plant, near Kurchatov city, following Ukraine’s unprecedented cross-border offensive into the Russian region.
TATYANA MAKEYEVA/AFP/Getty Images
“This option was considered. We analyzed it,” he told reporters when asked about the possibility of disabling the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) as Ukraine advances into the border region.
The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the city of Kursk and is approximately 110 kilometers (68 miles) from the border with Ukraine. The BBC reported on August 11 that Russia appeared to be building new defenses around the nuclear plant.
Fierce clashes erupted in Kursk, which borders Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region after Ukraine deployed troops and armored vehicles into the area on August 6. Kyiv’s forces quickly gained control of Russian territory as Moscow scrambled to deploy additional resources to the area from front line regions in Ukraine.
“Firstly, the Kursk NPP is of great importance, it plays an important role in the energy supply of the entire region. This is extremely important now,” Likhachev said. “So far, the decision to [disable it] has not been made. Of the four units, one is operating.”
He added: “For now, we believe that the security measures taken are sufficient.”
Some Russian military bloggers, including Russian war correspondent Alexander Sladkov, speculated in the early days of the incursion that Ukrainian forces were planning to take control of the nuclear power plant.
There is no evidence to suggest that Ukraine intends to capture the nuclear power plant, although the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said after visiting the facility on August 27 that “there is now a danger of a nuclear incident here.”
“Why does the Ukrainian Armed Forces need the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant? It will come in handy. There are many options,” military journalist Sladkov said. He said Ukraine will argue that its forces will leave Kursk only if Russian forces leave the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which has been under Russian control since early March 2022.
Ukraine may also “demand that troops be withdrawn” from the country, “otherwise they will blow up the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (it is impossible to blow it up with artillery and missiles), causing a gigantic catastrophe,” said Sladkov.
Ukrainian forces may attempt to “disable the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant without incident, making it inoperative, thereby depriving Russia of this largest source of energy,” the war correspondent wrote.
The Washington D.C.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to “downplay the theater-wide operational impacts of the Ukrainian incursion” into Kursk.
The Russian leader “continues efforts to convince the Russian people that the Kremlin’s delayed and disorganized response to the Kursk incursion is an acceptable price to pay” for further Russian advances in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the ISW said.
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