A Russian soldier stands guard outside the first reactor of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. (File photo)
Russia says a recent acknowledgment by Ukraines military intelligence chief about Kievs failure to capture the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant should become "a wake-up call" for the United Nations.
Head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministrys Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Kirill Budanov admitted earlier that his agencys special forces had made three attempts to attack and capture Europes largest power plant.
The attacks were repelled by Russian forces, Budanov said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday that Budanovs statement "should become a wake-up call for the UN, whose representatives have been saying all these months that they ‘could not determine [which] direction strikes on the plant [were coming from]."
The Russian diplomat further said Budanovs remarks should also awaken "from their hypnotic slumber the populations of NATO countries who have been indoctrinated by NATO regimes that it was allegedly Russia that has been creating threats to nuclear facilities and threatening the use of nuclear arms."
She said the foreign ministry had repeatedly noted that Ukraine was making threats by invoking the specter of the crucial power plant being used "as a dirty nuclear weapon and blackmailing Europeans with it."
Russian forces seized the facility in southern Ukraine soon after Moscow launched its "special military operation" in Ukraine in February 2022.
Ever since, the plant has come under attack at times, including in August 2022 when shelling blew holes in the roof of a storage unit.
Russia described Kievs shelling of the facility as "nuclear terrorism."
Ukraine accuses Russia of storing heavy weapons in the plant. Moscow denies the allegation.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been monitoring the situation at the facility since the early days of the conflict.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/27610
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