Putin is 'planning a man-made catastrophe' at Chernobyl: Ukrainian intelligence claims Russia will fake a terror attack at nuclear plant and try to blackmail the world - while the West warns it will try to use chemical weapons if invasion does notsucceed
Ukrainian intelligence says Putin has ordered his troops to prepare a 'man-made catastrophe' at Chernobyl
Spies say the attack would then be blamed on saboteurs sent by Kyiv, and accuse Russia of collecting the dead bodies of Ukrainian soldiers in refrigerated lorries to pose as the terrorists
Purpose of the attack would be to 'blackmail the world' for supporting Ukraine, and justify further violence
Comes as White House and Downing Street warn that Russia also appears to be preparing a chemical attack
Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to create a 'man-made catastrophe' at Chernobyl which he plans to blame on Ukrainian 'saboteurs' in order to justify further escalating his war against the ex-Soviet country, Kyiv's intelligence service has claimed today.
Ukrainian spies say the 'terrorist attack' will be carried out by Russian operatives moved into the plant yesterday amongst a group of 'specialists' sent from Belarus to take over safety operations at the partially-destroyed nuclear power plant, which was seized by Russian forces early on during the invasion.
It comes after Putin's men disconnected Chernobyl from monitoring systems which report the status of its nuclear safety systems to UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and cut power to the plant - meaning water used to keep its fuel rods cooled will no longer automatically top itself up.