РУССКИЙ
11:48 26.08.2024 •
Kursk NPP.
Photo: TASS
Ukraine has tried to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant reinforcing a theory that the Kursk offensive was aimed at creating significant havoc by either capturing or wrecking the Kursk NPP. The danger of a well aimed drone or missile at a nuclear facility raises the specter of another Chernobyl, or worse, writes Stephen Bryen, a former U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Defense.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported a single suicide drone attack on the plant. Russian President Vladimir Putin said, "the enemy tried to strike the Nuclear Power Plant... and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been informed, and they have promised to visit and send specialists to assess the situation."
The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, said he plans to visit the plant during the week of August 26th.
Last year there was a Ukrainian drone attack on the same facility. Nuclear Engineering International reported that in July 2023 “Unit 4 at Russia’s Kursk NPP was completely disconnected from the grid following a Ukrainian kamikaze drone carrying explosives fell near the station.”
In the latest attack, parts of one downed drone were found about 100 meters (328 feet) from the complex.
There are pictures of the drone itself (see below), It is a quadcopter FPV drone that was carrying an improvised explosive device that looks like the warhead of an RPG 7 or something similar.
The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is one of the three biggest nuclear power plants in Russia and the fourth biggest electricity producer in Russia.
The Russians are convinced that the Kursk attack was planned by NATO and that NATO secretly trained the Ukrainians for the operation.
Significant amounts of western equipment (including Leopard, Challenger and Abrams tanks) and air defenses (IRIS-T, Crotale NG, and Patriot) and thousands of drones are engaged. The Russians likewise believe that the Ukrainians are getting significant intelligence help from NATO.
NATO countries say they were not informed about the operation.
A nuclear disaster might induce Europe to clamor for military intervention in Ukraine and help convince the US to commit crack airborne forces to the war. The idea of a war in Ukraine with US and other NATO forces would cause the war to spread throughout Europe or even beyond. It would create other consequences such as an Iranian attack on Israel or a Chinese attack on Taiwan, taking advantage of US and NATO preoccupation in Europe.
One question that arises is whether NATO's involvement had high level backing, or if in fact it was a colonel's solution to a growing realization that Zelensky and his regime would soon be defeated on the battlefield. NATO military operators have been at this war for a long time and have taken their own battlefield losses as Russia targeted command centers in Ukraine filled with NATO officers.
There has been no public attempt to figure out who was involved in the Kursk operation or who was behind the attacks on the Ukrainian and Russian nuclear power plants. Such provocations do have serious consequences, although what they are has yet to be understood.
Moscow’s soon-retiring Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov told journalists on Thursday, August 22nd (reported by Russia Today, a Russian-government news outlet) that "Putin has decided on how to respond to Kiev’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region and everyone responsible will undoubtedly be punished."
Meanwhile the danger of a well aimed drone or missile at a nuclear facility raises the specter of another Chernobyl, or worse, Stephen Bryen stresses.
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