Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 01/02/2023
More than thirty media from the region, as well as the Russian embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, reported the claims of the Russian intelligence service that Ukraine is storing weapons donated to it by the West in nuclear power plants. An inspection carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency determined that this was not true.
On January 23, 2023, Sputnik in the Serbian language published an article stating that the intelligence service of the Russian Federation has reliable information that Ukraine is storing weapons on the premises of nuclear power plants. The article states, among other things:
The Ukrainian nuclear power plants are home to missiles for “HIMARS” and foreign air defence systems, as well as large-calibre artillery ammunition, said the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Narishkin.
“There is reliable information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces store weapons and ammunition they receive from the West in the territories of nuclear power plants. “We are talking about the most expensive and most deficient missiles for the Ukrainian army for HIMARS systems, foreign air defence systems, as well as large-calibre artillery ammunition”, the press service of the Foreign Intelligence Service quoted Naryshkin.
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“I would like to hope that no one in Kyiv will think of deliberately blowing up such warehouses in the hope of begging the US and its allies for more weapons and ammunition”, added the director of the service.
According to him, this method is often used by international terrorists. At the same time, as stated, the hostages of the Kyiv regime are now not individual civilians, but “tens and even hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of their own country and neighbouring countries”.
As the article claims, during the last week of December, weapons were delivered from abroad to the “Rivne nuclear power plant”.
The same claims of Narishkin were published by the time of writing this analysis in 38 articles published by 32 media from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region.
Out of the mentioned 32 media, four web portals (Danas (.hr), RTS, Bilten and Tanjug), while sharing the Reuters article, pointed out, along with Narishkin’s statements, that Reuters could not “independently verify these claims”. The web portal Klix also stated in its article that the Russian intelligence service did not present “any evidence to support this claim”.
The allegations of the Russian intelligence service were published on January 23, 2023, on the official Facebook page of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
What are the facts?
Numerous Western countries, such as Germany and the United States of America, have donated various types of military weapons to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Among the US donations are the HIMARS missile systems, which are mentioned in articles in the domestic media.
The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (Sluzhba vneshney razvedki Rossiyskoy Federatsii – SVR RF) is dedicated to “protecting individuals, society and the state from external threats”. It is led by Sergey Narishkin, whose quotes are stated in the mentioned articles. Numerous media also published his claims in Russia (1, 2, 3). These statements were originally published on the official website of the SVR on January 23, 2023.
There are four active nuclear power plants in Ukraine: Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnitsky, Rivne and South Ukraine. In addition, Ukraine is also home to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the site of the former nuclear power plant where an accident occurred in 1986. Since 1957, Ukraine has been a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an autonomous agency operating within the United Nations. As stated on the official website of the IAEA, this agency “works with member states and numerous partners around the world to promote the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear technologies”. The headquarters of this agency are in Vienna.
At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the IAEA announced that it was closely monitoring developments in Ukraine “with a particular focus on the safety and security of its nuclear power plants and other nuclear-related facilities”. Since then, this agency has published periodic reports on the situation in nuclear power plants and the Chernobyl zone.
In the report dated January 20, 2023, it is stated that IAEA experts are already present in some nuclear power plants in Ukraine and that in the coming days, they will be deployed in others as well. Namely, the experts of this agency are present in the Zaporizhzhia power plant from September 1, 2022, from mid-January in the South Ukraine and Rivne power plants, as well as in the Chernobyl zone, while, it is stated, “in the next few days, the IAEA expert team will also be stationed at the Khmelnitsky power plant”. That plan was implemented, as stated in the report dated January 26, which was the latest available at the time of writing this analysis.
As stated in the report, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi pointed out that a permanent presence in all nuclear power plants has been established in Ukraine.
“The IAEA now has permanent teams deployed at all Ukrainian nuclear power plants and Chernobyl. They provide technical assistance and advice, assess power plant needs and report their findings to Vienna. Their presence marks a major milestone in our efforts to help Ukraine ensure nuclear security and protection during this tragic war”, he said.
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IAEA experts have visited the locations since arriving at the facilities and will continue to do so. Although there were claims earlier this week that military equipment was stored at some of the sites, the teams did not observe anything that contradicted the nuclear safety and security arrangements that would be expected for any such nuclear facility, Director General Grossi said. There are regular deliveries of equipment and plant supplies to nuclear power plant sites, and the IAEA team at the Rivne nuclear power plant is aware of one recent delivery of a replacement turbine rotor, he added.
Therefore, the experts of this agency are present in nuclear power plants in Ukraine and monitor their safety. The IAEA teams, the Director General of the Agency pointed out, did not notice any irregularities. In the Rivne nuclear power plant, it was emphasized, the turbine rotor for the power plant was delivered. The report does not indicate that any weapons were delivered to this nuclear power plant.
Grossi, speaking in the European Parliament on January 24, pointed out that the IAEA conducted an inspection of all power plants and found no evidence for claims that weapons were stored there. A video featuring part of Grossi’s presentation in which he talks about this inspection is available on the Global News YouTube channel, where it was published on January 24, 2023. Speaking about the benefits of establishing permanent teams of IAEA personnel in nuclear power plants, Grossi pointed out that “this morning, he issued an instruction to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the facilities in cooperation with the Ukrainian management of these facilities to establish whether military equipment is really stored or transferred in these power plants. Of course, the results of that inspection were negative”.
As he states, the IAEA succeeded in a “peaceful, technical way” to expose the accusations that illegal things are happening in these facilities. Ukrainian officials also denied these allegations.
In the Reuters article, referred to by the mentioned individual media, in addition to the allegations reported by the domestic media that the Russian intelligence service did not offer any evidence for its claims, there is also a statement of Mikhail Podoliak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who denied the claims of the Russian services.
Only five of the mentioned 32 media subsequently published the findings of the inspection conducted by the IAEA but did not correct the existing articles in which they reported the claims of the Russian intelligence service, without noting that they were unverified.
Therefore, the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose teams of experts are permanently present in all nuclear power plants in Ukraine, conducted an inspection and determined that the allegations about the storage of weapons on the premises of the power plants are not true.
Based on the facts, we assess the articles in which the claims of the Russian intelligence service about the weapons in the Ukrainian nuclear power plants without any indication that they are unverified, as the manipulation of the facts.
