MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. Ukrainian battalions deliberately blew up facilities feeding the Chernobyl nuclear plant with electricity to put it at risk and later disseminated fakes about this situation, Igor Vishnevetsky, director of the Russian foreign ministry’s nonproliferation and arms control department, said on Thursday.

"The Ukrainian side reported about alleged shelling near the Chernobyl NPP that damaged electricity transmission facilities at a substation feeding the Chernobyl NPP’s facilities. We refuted such fakes more than once. And this is yet another lie," he said. "[Ukrainian] battalions deployed several kilometers of the plant blew up the electricity transmission line from the substation feeding the Chernobyl plant. In other words, they deliberately put the nuclear facilities at risk. It is egregious."

According to the Russian diplomat, it was necessary to use diesel generators to remedy the situation. "A parallel electricity transmission line has been launched jointly with Belarus while Ukrainian troops did not let repairmen arrive at the site to repair the electricity transmission times that had been blown up. These are the realities," he added.

He also drew attention to the incident around the Zaporozhye nuclear plant, calling it a "clear provocation." "It had been widely discussed, including at the IAEA, until an IAEA representative made a statement that everything is under control there, with no shelling whatsoever, that the plant is operating routinely and the radiation background is within the norm," he noted.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said on Wednesday that Ukrainian nationalists had committed a provocation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant by attacking power grid facilities responsible for the Chernobyl NPP’s electricity supply, but Russian specialists took prompt action to commission standby diesel generators.