Russia says it has defused unexploded ordnance fired by Ukraine near the Kursk nuclear power plant

Moscow: Russia said on Wednesday that its armed forces had defused unexploded US-made munitions fired by Ukraine. The munitions were fired just five kilometers from Russia's Kursk nuclear power plant. Moscow accuses the Ukrainian armed forces of attempting to attack the plant.

The announcement was made by Russia's National Guard and accompanied by a video showing the unexploded munitions and sappers blowing them up. It came a day after Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, inspected the facility. He said it was vulnerable because there was no protective dome to protect it from missiles, drones or artillery.

There was initially no comment from Ukraine on the alleged Russian find and Reuters could not independently verify the location of the video.

On August 6, Ukrainian forces entered the Kursk region through Russia's western border in a surprise attack. The invasion is still ongoing, and fighting has broken out within a radius of about 40 kilometers around the nuclear facility.

Ukraine has not yet responded to an accusation made last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin that it attempted to attack the plant. Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, declined to clarify on Tuesday whether or not he held Ukraine responsible.

Rosgvardia, the Russian National Guard, said in a statement that its engineers had found a grenade from a HIMARS multiple rocket launcher made in the United States five kilometers from the nuclear power plant, as well as a rocket fragment that was said to have been filled with 180 unexploded pieces of ammunition.

A video of the discovery released by the agency showed two soldiers examining fragments of the rocket. According to them, the rocket had been shot down by Russian air defense and partially exploded in the air.

One of the fragments examined was marked “M101 GRENADE.” They were shown piling the ammunition in a hole in the ground and detonating it in a controlled explosion.