Russia Builds Fortifications Around Kursk Nuclear Plant as Ukraine Advances

Russia is building new defenses around a nuclear power plant in its border Kursk region as Ukraine advances deeper into Russian territory following its cross-border incursion, according to new reports.

New photos appear to show Moscow constructing new lines of defenses close to the Kursk nuclear power plant, the BBC reported on Sunday. The facility sits on the edge of the town of Kurchatov, west of the regional capital, Kursk. Newsweek has been unable to verify the photos and reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Ukrainian forces crossed from the country's northeastern Sumy region into Kursk on Tuesday. They quickly gained territory as Russia scrambled to respond to the most significant advance into Russian territory since the start of full-scale war nearly two-and-a-half years ago.

Public messaging from Russian officials has said Moscow stemmed the Ukrainian advance, but reports from Russia's government on Sunday indicated fighting was ongoing around villages up to 20 miles from Ukraine's border. Various pieces of footage widely circulated on social media appear to show Ukrainian soldiers tearing down Russian flags in Kursk villages, some replaced with Kyiv's yellow and blue.

The U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said on Sunday that Ukraine had likely advanced west and to the northwest in Kursk in the past few days.

Kyiv officials had largely swerved commenting on the cross-border push, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nodded to "actions to push the war out into the aggressor's territory" on Saturday.

Russia's community of influential military bloggers have speculated that Ukraine hoped to reach the Kursk nuclear power plant. Moscow's forces have clashed around 30 miles away from the Kursk plant, the BBC reported, with satellite imagery showing "several newly constructed trench lines in the vicinity" starting from around 5 miles from the Kursk facility.

International authorities have long raised the alarm over how the war in Ukraine could impact nuclear facilities and the safety of the plants close to front-line fighting.

On Friday, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog warned Moscow and Kyiv to "exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences" rising from fighting around the Kursk plant.

"I am personally in contact with the relevant authorities of both countries and will continue to be seized of the matter," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said in a statement.

Just one day earlier, the IAEA had expressed fresh concern over the security of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which is Europe's largest facility and has sat on the front lines of fighting since the early days of the war.

Intense fires were reported close to the plant, including a blaze underneath the two remaining cables linking the nuclear facility to external power, the watchdog said.

Late on Sunday, Ukraine's Zelensky then said Russia had started a fire near the Zaporizhzhia plant, but Russian-installed authorities pointed the finger of blame at Kyiv.

Zelensky said radiation levels are within norm at the plant, located in the town of Enerhodar, adding: "Russia has been using the Zaporizhzhia NPP [nuclear power plant] only to blackmail Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world."

Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-backed official in southern Ukraine, said on Sunday that Ukrainian shelling caused the fire in one of the facility's cooling towers. Rogov added in a later statement that the fire had been extinguished. A Ukrainian drone struck the cooling tower, Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed Zaporizhzhia governor, said late on Sunday. "The radiation background is normal, and the consequences of the fire will not affect the operation of the station itself."

Experts with the IAEA saw thick, dark smoke at the plant and heard multiple explosions, the watchdog said, but said there was no impact on nuclear safety.

Russian forces have controlled the Zaporizhzhia plant since 2022, and while Moscow maintains its grip on the facility, "the potential for the site to be used as a giant dirty bomb cannot and should not be ruled out," Darya Dolzikova, a research fellow for proliferation and nuclear policy at the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) defense think tank, said in September last year.

Key systems and equipment could be damaged, or face dangerous degradation, at the plant, Dolzikova said at the time.

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