Moscow hints at ‘terror act’ at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant located in Ukraine

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service has issued a statement that accuses the West of preparing a “sabotage operation” at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which remains under Russian military occupation, according to the state state-run news agency TASS.

The statement said that NATO countries were allegedly “urging Kyiv to carry out a large-scale act of sabotage that would cause casualties among Ukrainians and EU residents.”

The Russian intelligence agency also alleged that something “similar to the MH17 plane crash” was being planned, despite the fact that an international court found Moscow-backed militants guilty of shooting down the Malaysian airliner in 2014 over Ukrainian skies under Russian control at the time.

“The West is considering an option to organize a diversion at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant that would lead to the melting of reactor cores. The British have supposedly calculated that radiation would spread to EU citizens near Ukraine’s border,” the Russian service said.

Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council responded by saying that such statements are entirely false and could indicate that Russia itself is preparing a false-flage provocation at the plant.

“The Russian intelligence service has made similar ‘predictions’ before — about sabotage on pipelines, terrorist attacks in Europe, and strikes on critical infrastructure. None of them ever came true,” the center said.

The agency reiterated that Russia bears full responsibility for the safety of the Zaporizhzhia plant, as it has occupied the facility, deployed military equipment on its grounds, and continues to pressure Ukrainian personnel, some of whom have been imprisoned.

Analysts believe this latest statement from the Kremlin is part of an ongoing disinformation campaign that is aimed at intimidating Ukrainians and European countries, and potentially laying the groundwork to justify a Russian provocation at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.