Russia Planning 'False Flag' Attack on Own Nuclear Plant: Ukraine

Russia is planning a "false flag" attack on its own nuclear power plant in the Kursk region, a spokesperson of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Tuesday, citing the country's National Resistance Center.

Ukraine's National Resistance Center, which was created by the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said in a statement that it obtained leaked documents showing the Kremlin is preparing a provocation at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in western Russia.

Newsweek has been unable to verify the authenticity of the documents and has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

Last month, local Kursk authorities accused Ukraine of attempting a drone attack on the nuclear power plant. The region's governor, Roman Starovoit, said a drone was downed just several miles off the plant, near a residential building in the town of Kurchatov.

"Preparations for evacuation from the zone of possible radioactive contamination in the event of an accident at the nuclear power plant are underway in the Kursk region," the center said on Tuesday, adding that evacuations are planned for 21,000 to 57,000 people.

This is "despite the fact that the population of the region is more than 1 million people, and Kursk itself is 435,000. That is, it is about 5 percent of the population of the regions, which indicates that those on the list were 'selected'," the center said.

Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, a journalist from the United States who is now an official spokesperson of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, published a video statement on X, formerly Twitter, repeating the center's allegations.

"We are live with reports that Ukraine's Center for National Resistance has obtained documents that indicate Russia plans a false flag attack on the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant," she said. "In addition, it is only planning to evacuate a certain number of the residents of Kursk—the Kremlin is picking and choosing who to take out, prior to its own attack on the nuclear power plant."

"We have to realize that Russia's provocations with the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, with the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant, and its attempt to escalate hostilities against NATO countries, simply leave NATO with no choice but their need to respond to any provocation from Russia, as well as closing their borders with Russia and Belarus," Ashton-Cirillo added.

Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of staging provocations at Ukraine's occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which was seized by Russian forces in the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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