Nuclear danger warning over Ukraine's Kursk offensive in Russia

UN watchdog tells Ukraine and Russia to show 'maximum restraint' amid reports of fighting near nuclear plant

Russia has deployed tanks to repel a surprise Ukrainian attack in the Kursk border region. Reuters

The UN's atomic watchdog has told Ukraine and Russia to show “maximum restraint” as fighting on a new front raises fears for a Russian nuclear plant.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there were reports of “significant military activity” near the plant in Kursk.

Russian authorities said on Saturday the plant was running normally despite the surprise Ukrainian attack on the Kursk border region.

Moscow has deployed tanks and rocket launchers in what it called a “counterterror operation” to repel troops from mainland Russia.

Mr Grossi said safety rules he drew up for the Zaporizhzhia plant in occupied southern Ukraine were “equally applicable in this situation”.

“These include, among others, the imperative to ensure the physical integrity of a nuclear power plant. This is valid irrespective of where an NPP is situated,” he said.

“At this juncture, I would like to appeal to all sides to exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences.”

Russian diplomats in Vienna said there were “no immediate reasons yet” for an emergency sitting of the UN watchdog's board.

However, they claimed fragments that were “presumably pieces of intercepted rockets” had been discovered at the Kursk plant.

Kremlin-owned nuclear operator Rosatom said it had pulled workers from a construction site near the plant due to the state of emergency in the region.

Looming threat

The threat of a nuclear accident has loomed over the conflict since Russian troops occupied Zaporizhzhia in the early stages of their 2022 invasion.

Mr Grossi has said the world is lucky to have escaped a nuclear disaster after persistent reports of shelling and drone activity near Zaporizhzhia.

Inspectors have also monitored the Chernobyl exclusion zone after Moscow's troops advanced into the area of the 1986 accident.

A Russian counter-terrorism committee said Ukraine had mounted an “unprecedented attempt to destabilise the situation in a number of regions”.

It called Ukraine's incursion a “terrorist attack” and said Kyiv's troops had wounded civilians and destroyed residential buildings.

Ukrainian leaders have remained tight-lipped on the operation, and the US said it was not informed of the plans in advance.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alluded to the offensive by saying that “Russia brought the war to our land, and it should feel what it has done”.

His adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the cross-border attacks will make Moscow “start to realise that the war is slowly creeping inside of Russian territory” and suggested they would strengthen Ukraine's hand in any peace negotiations.