Putin accuses Ukrainian forces of attempted strike on nuclear power plant in Kursk region

Vladimir Putin has held a video conference to discuss the situation in the southwestern Kursk region with senior officials from his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow, the Kremlin announced on Thursday.

Those present included First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, and the governors of the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk border regions, in parts of which the incursion by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) that began over two weeks ago is continuing.

Putin told the officials that the AFU had attempted to strike the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant overnight Wednesday, and that Russia had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose director, Rafael Grossi, is due to visit the Kursk plant next week, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

Acting Kursk Governor Alexey Smirnov told Putin that 133,000 residents had left or been evacuated from districts affected by the cross-border incursion, while some 20,000 had remained in their homes.

During the meeting Putin approved a proposal by Smirnov to add an additional payment of 15,000 rubles (€146) to the sum of 10,000 rubles (€98) already paid out by the federal government to evacuees from the Kursk region.

Manturov said that the federal government would allocate an additional 1.9 billion rubles (€18.5 million) to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, as well as 858 million rubles (€8.4 million) to compensate residents of border areas for loss of property. He added that some Kursk schoolchildren would be returning to distance learning when the new semester began next month.