Ukraine toys with Chernobyl-like disaster at Kursk

Ukraine has tried to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant, reinforcing a theory that the Kursk offensive aims at creating significant havoc by either capturing or wrecking the facility.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has reported a single suicide drone attack on the plant. Russian President Vladimir Putin said “The enemy tried to strike the Nuclear Power Plant … and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been informed, and they have promised to visit and send specialists to assess the situation.”

The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, said he plans to visit the plant during the week of August 26.

Last year, Ukraine attacked the same facility with a drone. Nuclear Engineering International reported that in July 2023, “Unit 4 at Russia’s Kursk NPP was completely disconnected from the grid following a Ukrainian kamikaze drone carrying explosives fell near the station.”

In the latest attack, parts of one downed drone were found about 100 meters from the complex. Photos (see below) show it is a first-person-view (FPV) quadcopter drone carrying an improvised explosive device that looks like the warhead of an RPG 7 or something similar.

The device appears to be similar to a TBG-7V warhead, which is a thermobaric bomb. Here is a picture of the warhead device as shown on a Russian Telegram channel.

Here is a picture of the drone, which is battery-powered and has a short range of a few kilometers.

If the photos are correct representations of what the Russian Defense Ministry and Putin say was used to attack the Kursk NPP, there is little reason to believe it could cause much real damage. The drone also seems to have been smuggled into the Kursk NPP area and operated locally.

However, Acting Governor of the Kursk