Live Updates | Russia-Ukraine-War

KYIV, Ukraine — A senior Ukrainian military officer has accused Russia of planning to stage explosions at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and blame them on Ukraine in a false flag attack.

Gen. Oleksii Gromov, the chief of the main operational department of the Ukrainian military’s General Staff, pointed out at Russia’s unfounded allegations that Ukraine was plotting to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb as a possible signal that Moscow was planning explosions at the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest.

Russia took control of the Zaporizhzhia plant in the opening days of the invasion. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of attacking the plant, which has been shut after continuous shelling.

Gromov also charged Thursday that Russian forces could have staged a series of explosions at residential buildings in the city of Kherson before retreating from the city using scorched Earth tactics “to inflict a critical damage to the infrastructure of the areas being reclaimed by Ukraine.”

Moscow has repeatedly made the unfounded claim that Ukraine is preparing to use a “dirty bomb,” an explosive devise with radioactive material, on its own territory. Western officials have dismissed the claim as misinformation possibly designed as a pretext for Russia to justify its own military escalation.

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