Russia is preparing to stage a provocation at its Kursk Nuclear Power Plant involving the evacuation of some of the local population, Ukraine's National Resistance Center reported on Aug. 15.
According to the report, authorities in Kursk Oblast are currently preparing for evacuation "in the event of an accident at the nuclear power plant" and subsequent radioactive contamination. The National Resistance Center managed to obtain a register listing people who are to be evacuated.
In total, 21,000-57,000 people living in Kursk and its surroundings are to be sent away, the Center reported. As the organization noted, the population of Kursk Oblast is more than 1 million, meaning that the evacuation should concern around 2-5% of the total number of its residents.
The evacuees will be transported to four settlements in the northern part of the oblast, namely to Zheleznogorsk, Bolshoye Soldatskoye, Shchigry, and Gorshechnoye, according to the report.
The National Resistance Center said that the provocation is part of Russia's strategy to divert attention from its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine.
Russian forces occupied the Ukrainian power station, which is the largest nuclear plant in Europe, in March 2022. In late June, Ukrainian officials issued a warning that Russia may be preparing a terrorist attack at the occupied plant through radiation leakage.
On July 6, Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said that the danger of a terror attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is "quietly going down."
