President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of his security council today – an unusual occurrence, as these meetings are usually held on Fridays.
In a statement that was broadcast by state news channels, he accused Ukraine of bombing the Turkish Stream gas pipeline – a natural gas pipeline running from Russia to Turkey through the Black Sea.
Putin also said that Ukraine had attacked the Kursk nuclear power plant in western Russia, going back to accusations from last August, when Russia’s FSB security service said Ukrainian saboteurs had blown up electricity pylons in the Kursk region, about 100km (60 miles) from Ukraine’s north-east border.
At the time, the FSB said the attacks had affected the “technological process of functioning” of the Kursk nuclear plant.
In his statement, Putin also said that Ukraine was behind attacks on the Zaporizhzhia power plant, which he said amounted to “atomic terrorism”. Ukraine and Russia have frequently traded accusations of shelling the facility.
Putin added that “should attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation continue, the response will be harsh and proportionate to the level of the threats”.
Source: BBC