TSAMTO, November 5th. The head of the Russian Armed Forces Protection Corps, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, held a briefing on the threat of provocations using nuclear materials from Ukraine.
Below, I.Kirillov's speech is given in the presentation of the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
"The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation continues to study materials on violations by Ukraine of issues related to radiation safety.
We remind you that in 2022, the armed forces of Ukraine carried out 49 fire strikes using artillery and unmanned aerial vehicles at the facilities of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. The strikes targeted nuclear reactors, storage facilities for fresh and spent nuclear fuel, as well as other critical infrastructure facilities.
As a result of these attacks, the station was left without external power supply five times, which created a real threat of a man-made disaster.
At first, the shelling of the station by the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not cause concern among the world community, since, according to experts from the University of Cambridge, the risk of radiation contamination was minimal.
However, the forecast of the development of the radiation situation carried out by our specialists, subsequently confirmed by relevant European organizations, showed that the release of radioactive substances in the event of an accident would affect almost the whole of Europe. Only after that, as well as after the deployment of IAEA experts at the station, its shelling practically stopped.
At the same time, attacks on the facilities of the industrial site and the satellite city of Energodar, where the station staff lives, continue to the present moment.
The Security Service of Ukraine carries out sabotage and terrorist activities, including against employees of the NPP and representatives of government authorities. Residents of the city are constantly subjected to psychological pressure and blackmail. Threats are being sent to relatives of the station staff living in Kiev-controlled territories.
I would like to note that the shelling of critical infrastructure facilities can lead to irreversible consequences comparable to the accidents at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant.
Recall that in 1986, a day after the accident at the Chernobyl power plant, Swedish radiation monitoring devices located at a distance of more than 1 thousand km from it recorded a tenfold excess of background radiation levels. As a result of the Chernobyl disaster, more than 20 thousand square kilometers of the territory of 17 European countries were contaminated with radioactive materials.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that one of the priority goals of the invasion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine into the territory of the Kursk region was the seizure of the Kursk nuclear power plant.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has received a report from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, which was taken into account when planning the operation and according to which only the Russian Federation will be exposed to radioactive contamination in the event of an accident: "... the Kursk NPP location area is under the influence of southerly winds, which transport emissions during the first and next 12 hours in a northerly direction over the territory of the Russian Federation… There will be no change in the background values of gamma radiation on the territory of Ukraine."
However, it is more likely that the situation could develop in a completely different scenario. Taking into account various factors, in the event of a large-scale accident at a nuclear power plant, radioactive substances would spread to a large part of Europe, as was the case in the case of the Chernobyl accident.
More serious concerns are caused by attempts at nuclear blackmail by Ukraine.
So, during a meeting with US presidential candidate Trump in October 2024, the head of the Kiev regime, Zelensky, in an ultimatum form, requested accelerated membership in NATO or permission to possess nuclear weapons.
At the Munich Security Conference in February 2022, they already announced their intention to restore Ukraine's nuclear status.
Conducting a special military operation did not allow the Ukrainian side to implement its own nuclear program. Its main performers are the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, whose scientists participated in the USSR nuclear program, as well as the Institute for Nuclear Research at the National Academy of Sciences in Kiev.
I would like to note that since 2021, the financing of these institutions has increased by an order of magnitude, and the total volume of purchases has increased by 20 times. Such a sharp increase in government spending also indicates Kiev's attempts to implement its nuclear program.
Despite the current lack of technical potential to create nuclear weapons, the available capabilities allow Kiev to create a so-called "dirty bomb".
Spent nuclear fuel, industrial and calibration radioactive sources can be used to create such devices.
In one of the briefings, we noted that Ukraine has become one of the main importers of spent nuclear fuel. The supply routes are organized through Poland and Romania, while organizational, logistical and financial issues are personally supervised by the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Ermak.
Of particular concern is the report presented on the slide by the Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine to Prime Minister Shmigal. It reports the loss of 68 sources of ionizing radiation, including highly active ones, which were located at the Institute of Metrology in the village of Liptsy, Kharkiv region. The report noted that "... loss of control over ionizing radiation sources is classified as a radiation accident ...".
The Ukrainian authorities are avoiding providing IAEA experts with full access to all facilities located in the Chernobyl exclusion Zone, and are delaying sending detailed reports on the amount and condition of radioactive waste located there. Kiev refuses to involve the IAEA in solving the problems of accounting and control of nuclear materials entering the Centralized Storage of spent nuclear fuel.
In this regard, I would like to draw attention to the methodological materials on which the SBU representatives are trained. One of the areas of study deals with the use of a "dirty bomb", in particular, the situation with the theft of ionizing radiation sources, the manufacture of an explosive device and its detonation in a place of mass gathering of people is simulated.
It is difficult to imagine that such a direction of interaction between the Ukrainian special services and the Office for Threat Reduction of the US Department of Defense (DITRA) fits into the format of "protective measures".
At the same time, according to information available to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not abandon plans to forcibly seize Russian nuclear power facilities.
Having failed to achieve success in relation to the Kursk NPP, the enemy returned to attempts to take control of the Zaporizhia power plant. This is evidenced by the plans of Operation Short Circuit discovered during the operational activities carried out in October 2024.
The Ukrainian special operations forces were supposed to participate in this operation. To achieve this goal, it was assumed that the HIMARS MLRS and unmanned attack systems would be used.
Due to the proactive actions of the Russian units, the plan to capture the station was not implemented.
Let me remind you that similar attempts were already made by Ukrainian units in 2022, when special forces of the main intelligence Directorate of Ukraine with the participation of foreign mercenaries tried to force the Kakhovka reservoir to create a springboard for seizing the NPP.
I would like to draw attention to one more aspect.
Prior to the start of the special military operation, the United States of America stated that radiological weapons do not belong to weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, in 2023, at a time when the Russian Defense Ministry for the first time expressed concerns about Ukraine creating a "dirty bomb" and detonating it in order to blame the Russian Federation for this, Washington's position changed dramatically. At the initiative of the United States, a resolution was introduced and adopted by the UN General Assembly condemning the use of radiological weapons.
Given the existing network of international radiation monitoring information systems, as well as the potential of IAEA-accredited radiochemical laboratories that will reliably determine the nature of the detonated device and its isotopic composition, it is impossible to carry out such an action covertly.
At the same time, taking into account the fact that nuclear fuel is used and stored in Ukraine, mainly of Russian production, the Kiev regime is able to go on a provocation directed against the population of the Russian Federation in order to discredit state and local authorities, spread panic, destabilize the situation and, thereby, counteract the tasks of a special military operation.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, together with relevant federal executive authorities, will continue monitoring the radiation, chemical, biological situation, as well as analyzing nuclear threats from Ukraine and will inform you."
