The Russian Ministry of Defence alleged that the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the Azov Special Operations Unit are planning to blow up an experimental reactor at the National Research Center of the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology and put the blame on Russian forces.
"Militants have rigged a reactor at the #Kharkov Institute of Physics & Technology to stage a provocation & accuse the Russian Armed Forces of launching a missile attack on the experimental nuclear facility," Russia's MoD said in a tweet.
"Nationalists mined a reactor at an experimental nuclear facility located at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology," said a TASS report.
Ukraine's national security service said that Russian forces are firing rockets at the Institute of Physics & Technology, which has a nuclear reactor in Kharkiv. Ukrainian foreign minister Emine Dzheppar said this could lead to huge ecological disaster. The minister also said that the Neutron Source nuclear research facility at the Institute has 37 nuclear fuel cells in its core.
The attack on Kharkiv facility has come just a day after a Russian forces targeted Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is Europe's largest power plant. “As a result of shelling by Russian forces on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, a fire broke out," said a video posted by Andrei Tuz, the spokesman of Zaporizhzhia.
Meanwhile, International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi has clarified that the Russian military controls both Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and Chernobyl.