CBRN event in Ukraine on Thu 13th March 2025

Ukraine has arrested a suspect in western Ukraine’s Rivne region for reportedly preparing to guide Russian drones towards the power lines connected to the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant. In its Tuesday press release, the SBU said the man, whose age was unspecified, had been tasked with planting a location beacon on a high-voltage line connecting the plant with the Kyiv region to help guide Russian Shahed drones toward the infrastructure, “To correct the strike, the agent tried to install a GPS tracker on one of the main power line poles. Using the ‘beacon’ signal, the occupiers planned to direct the ‘Shahed’ [drones] to de-energize the metropolitan area,” the press release says. According to the SBU, the suspect is a former employee at the plant who was recruited remotely by Russia’s Military Intelligence (GRU) earlier this year due to his background. The SBU said the suspect left the plant before Moscow’s 2022 invasion and was motivated to work with GRU for financial reasons. The SBU said the suspect previously scouted the locations multiple times but was apprehended by counterintelligence units when he approached the facilities and attempted to activate the tracker. The individual was charged with committing sabotage acts during martial law and faces life in prison if convicted. Russia’s aerial campaign in 2024 targeting Ukraine’s power plants rendered much of the country’s energy system inoperable at the time, which led to substantial blackouts in the summer of that year. As a result, nuclear plants – which could lead to nuclear a disaster if attacked and potentially draw international condemnation – have been left largely untouched by Russian strikes and thus have become the backbone for Ukraine’s current energy supplies, accounting for 60% of Ukraine’s energy needs according to a February Reuters report.