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CIA Vet: US Aiding Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russian Nuclear Power Plants

© Sputnik / Maksim Blinov / Go to the mediabankA Russian national flag and flags with the logo of Rosatom flutters at the construction site of a cooling tower at the Kursk II nuclear power plant near the village of Makarovka outside Kurchatov, Kursk region
A Russian national flag and flags with the logo of Rosatom flutters at the construction site of a cooling tower at the Kursk II nuclear power plant near the village of Makarovka outside Kurchatov, Kursk region - Sputnik International, 1920, 01.09.2023
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A Ukrainian drone attacked the town of Kurchatov, home to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, on September 1. Kiev is using the Pentagon's intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems to conduct the strikes, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson told Sputnik.
Ukraine's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was confirmed to have hit a non-residential building in Kurchatov, causing minor damage to the facade. There were no casualties.
Commenting on the attacks, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated: "The Ukrainian forces' drones that attacked objects on Russian territory would not have been able to fly such a distance without information from Western satellites."
"It's highly likely that," Larry Johnson, a veteran of the CIA and former analyst at the State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism, told Sputnik.

"What it's called ISR, Western intelligence surveillance reconnaissance capabilities, are supplying Ukraine with that kind of information."

The Department of Defense's (DOD) intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems typically include manned and unmanned airborne, space-borne, maritime, and terrestrial systems. These Pentagon platforms play a critical role in supporting military operations.
Prior to launching a drone attack on Russia's facilities the Ukrainian military need geo-coordinates and other extensive data of the targets. Who could provide them with such details? Most certainly their NATO backers: the US and the UK, according to Johnson.

"It wouldn't be just US would also be British, but absolutely," the CIA veteran said. "These attacks require some measure of knowing where to attack. And being able to program the geo-coordinates into these drones so they know where they're flying. So yeah, absolutely. We've got multiple images of US drones such as the Global Hawk flying in the Black Sea and other international waters. But they have the ability to collect intelligence inside of Ukraine and inside of Russia."

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This is not the first time Ukraine has threatened the safety of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. There were three previous attacks on the facility.
An aircraft-type drone crashed and detonated in the Russian town of Kurchatov on July 14 just a few kilometers from the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. Earlier, in April, another drone attack on the plant was repelled by Russia's air defenses.
As per the Federal Security Service (FSB), in August 2022, Ukrainian saboteurs carried out at least three terrorist attacks against the Kursk nuclear power plant and blew up six towers of high-voltage power lines (110, 330 and 750 kV), through which the plant supplies energy to industrial, transport, life support, and social infrastructure of the region.
The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is not the only Russian atomic facility targeted by Ukraine: in May, the FSB prevented a terrorist plot by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine to blast more than 30 power transmission towers of high-voltage power lines of the Leningrad and Kalinin Nuclear Power Plants.
In addition, the Kiev military has been continuing to shell at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant after the formerly Ukrainian region re-unified with Russia in the aftermath of the 2022 referendum.
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Per Johnson, the Kiev regime and its backers in the Biden administration are acting "incomprehensible and irrational."
Similarly, the CIA veteran condemned the decision of Team Biden to arm the Ukrainian military with cluster shells and incendiary rockets even though the Kiev regime is known for using these types of munitions against civilians.
"It's a disgustingly criminal thing to do," Johnson said.
According to the former CIA analyst, the Kiev regime and its US backers apparently believe that by killing civilians they would instigate anger against the Russian leadership. This perverted logic is not viable and Russia is likely to retaliate roughly, as per Johnson.
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