Russia claims Ukraine stores Western weapons, ammunition near nuclear power plants

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) director claimed on Monday that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are storing Western-supplied weapons and ammunition on the territory of nuclear power plants.

“This applies to the most expensive and scarce for the Armed Forces of Ukraine missiles for the HIMARS MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) and foreign air defense systems, as well as large-caliber artillery ammunition,” a statement by the SVR, quoting Sergey Naryshkin, read.

The statement claimed that several railway wagons of cargo were delivered from abroad through the Rafalivka railway station to the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant from abroad in the last week of December 2022 alone.

It also claimed that Ukraine’s intention is to “shell the cities of Donbas and other border regions of Russia from behind the backs of innocent Ukrainian civilians” while the Ukrainian Armed Forces “hides ammunition … behind nuclear reactors.”

“(Ukraine's) calculation is based on the fact that the Russian Armed Forces, realizing the danger of a nuclear catastrophe, will not strike at the territories of nuclear power plants,” the statement noted.

It also said that if a large-scale explosion happens in warehouses or at a nuclear power plant, then the blame for such a thing, for Ukraine, “can always be attributed to Moscow,” claiming that Kyiv is “absolutely convinced of this, given the tacit encouragement by the West of Ukrainian artillery strikes on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.”

“This is a method often used by international terrorists. Only the hostages of the Kyiv regime now are not individual civilians, but tens and even hundreds of thousands of residents of their own country and neighboring states. I would like to hope that no one in Kyiv will think of deliberately blowing up such warehouses in the hope of begging the US and its allies for even more weapons and ammunition,” it concluded.