MOSCOW, November 5. /TASS/. Ukrainian shelling of critical infrastructure in Russia, including the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), could result in catastrophic consequences similar to the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, warned.

"I would like to emphasize that attacks on critical infrastructure could lead to irreversible consequences comparable to the Chernobyl and Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant disasters," Kirillov stated.

He pointed out that one of Ukraine’s primary objectives in its incursion into the Kursk Region was to capture the Kursk NPP.

Kirillov also noted that in 1986, the next day after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, radiation monitoring devices of Sweden, located more than 1,000 kilometers away, recorded a tenfold excess of radiation levels above the background level.

"As a result of the Chernobyl disaster, more than 207,500 kilometers of the territory of 17 European states was contaminated with radioactive fallout," he recalled.