17.08.2024, Moscow.
Ukrainian militants have started actively surrendering in Kursk Region, Apti Alaudinov, commander of tRussia’s Akhmat special forces, told RIA Novosti on August 17.
Russian troops are gradually regaining their control over populated areas in Kursk Region.
According to him, ‘at every site’ the Russian army soldiers have started to take prisoners of war, Ukrainian militants, who do not have the support of the leadership, are themselves more actively surrendering. He also specified that the number of enemy live forces is decreasing.
Earlier, more than 20 Ukrainian soldiers voluntarily surrendered in the Kursk region, taking advantage of the existence of a specially created Russian channel on Telegram. A unit from the 22nd separate mechanized brigade of Ukrainian forces was captured in the village of Komarovka.
Since the start of the Ukrainian armed units’ operation in the Russian Kursk Region, the Russian Defense Ministry has been reporting daily on losses in their ranks, including captured militants, as well as Ukrainians who voluntarily surrendered to Russian forces.
On August 6, Ukrainian militants broke through the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Kursk region, directing their efforts towards the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. By August 11, they were expected to capture the plant. According to media reports, the saboteurs planned to detonate a dirty nuclear bomb, causing a radiation disaster and blaming it all on Russia.
It was reported that the Ukrainian “strike force” consisted of 11,000 militants. Italian and other Western journalists were prepared to document the results of the disaster.
It should be noted that IAEA Chairman Rafael Grossi planned to visit the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant at Russia’s invitation.
On the afternoon of August 17, the Director General of Rosatom, Aleksey Likhachyov, and the head of the IAEA discussed the situation around the Kursk and Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plants over the phone. Their last conversation took place on August 9. Likhachyov invited Grossi to visit the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and the city of Kurchatov as soon as possible to “personally assess the situation around the operating nuclear facility,” according to the state corporation.
The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is located in Kurchatov, approximately 65 km from the Ukrainian border, with a population of 40,000 people. Currently, two out of four power units are operational, with a total capacity of 2,000 MW. It supplies more than 50% of the power for all power plants in the Chernozemye region.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, stated that, “according to incoming information,” Kiev is preparing a missile attack on the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. She called on the UN and the IAEA to immediately condemn the “provocative actions being prepared by the Kiev regime and to prevent the violation of nuclear and physical nuclear safety at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, which could result in a large-scale man-made disaster in Europe.”
The Russian Defense Ministry warned that it would take “tough retaliatory military and technical measures” in the event of attacks on the nuclear power plant. The main task of these potential actions, according to the ministry, is to accuse Russia of “self-shelling” the plant to justify striking at Ukraine’s nuclear energy facilities.
In Kiev, all such accusations are denied, with statements that they have neither the desire nor the capability to strike the Kursk or Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plants or to detonate a “dirty bomb.” However, missile strikes on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant from Kiev’s side occur almost daily.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
