Tensions Escalate: Moscow and Kiev Trade Accusations of Plotting Attacks on Nuclear Power Plants

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of plotting an imminent attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Europe’s largest nuclear facility with six reactors, situated in Ukraine’s south. This nuclear power plant has been the subject of mutual recriminations and suspicions since Russian troops seized it in the days following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Each side has since regularly accused the other of shelling around the plant and risking a major nuclear mishap.

On July 4, 2023, an adviser to the head of Rosenergoatom, which operates Russia’s nuclear network, said Ukraine planned to drop on the plant ammunition laced with nuclear waste transported from another of the country’s five nuclear stations. Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Ukrainian armed forces quoted “operational data” as saying that “explosive devices” had been placed on the roof of the station’s third and fourth reactors on the same day.

Both sides have made similar accusations in the past, with Ukraine claiming that Russia is plotting “a large-scale provocation” at the nuclear power plant it occupies in the southeast of the country with the aim of disrupting a looming Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russia, on the other hand, has accused Ukraine of planning to stage a nuclear incident on its territory and pin the blame on Moscow.