Putin urges Europe to think about attacks on nuclear power plants

Attacks on Kursk and Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plants are very dangerous terrorist attacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Ralf1969, CC BY-SA 3.0

"These are very dangerous terrorist attacks. One can only imagine what will happen if we respond in kind, what will happen to the entire part of this Europe," Putin said.

Pushing units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) out of the Kursk region is a sacred duty of the Russian Armed Forces, Putin said. The fighting in the Russian region has been ongoing since August 6.

The day before, the IAEA published a report on the situation at the Zaporizhzhya NPP, calling it unstable. According to IAEA Director General Raffaele Grossi, all seven pillars of nuclear security at the plant have been violated. Drones attack the plant on a regular basis, but Moscow and Kyiv can only blame each other for those attacks, Grossi noted.

• The Kursk NPP is located in the town of Kurchatov. It consists of four power units with the RBMK-1000 reaction type. The share of the NPP in the installed capacity of all power plants in the Black Earth Region exceeds 50 percent.
• The Zaporizhzhya NPP is the largest nuclear power plant by capacity in Europe and third largest nuclear power plant in the world. It is located in the Zaporizhzhya region and consists of six VVER-1000 power units. After the start of the military operation in Ukraine, Zaporizhzhya NPP came under the control of Russia.

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Eastern Economic Forum  is an international forum held each year in Vladivostok, Russia, for the purpose of encouraging foreign investment in the Russian Far East. It is held each year since 2015 in September, at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia. The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended this forum in 2017. Lao Vice President Pany Yathotou was the most important foreign guest at the 8th Eastern Economic Forum in September 2023. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim attended the 9th Eastern Economic Forum in September 2024. Far East Economic Forum is sponsored by the organizing committee appointed by Roscongress, an association of the Russian Government, which also sponsors other international forums, such as St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.