Russia said on Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's accusation that a Russian drone hit the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was a staged "provocation" by Kiev to blackmail the West into providing it with more aid, Reuters reports.
Zelensky had earlier said that a Russian drone had caused significant damage to the plant's radiation containment dome, but that radiation levels had remained normal after the incident, which occurred on the day senior American, Ukrainian and European officials gathered at the Munich Security Conference to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, accused Zelensky of orchestrating the alleged drone attack to coincide with the Munich event as part of a lobbying effort to secure more weapons and money from the West.
"There was never any doubt that Zelensky would not come to the Munich conference empty-handed... The Kiev regime's hands must always be busy with some kind of baby rattle to distract the conference participants. "Zelensky is traveling with performances that are backed up by provocations," Zakharova said at a briefing in Moscow.
"Does anyone have any doubt that this is a provocation? There can be no doubt. A spectacle was needed to lobby for weapons supplies and convince the world community. A terrible, bloody and very dangerous spectacle," she said, accusing Kiev of using nuclear power plants for "blackmail."