Moscow, Aug 16 (IANS): Ukrainian saboteurs have blown up high-voltage power lines used by the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, Russias Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Tuesday.

The plant is located in Kursk Region, which borders eastern Ukraine, RT reported.

The blasts, which occurred on August 4, 9 and 12, "led to the disruption of the functioning of the nuclear power plant", the FSB said.

The FSB added that a terrorism investigation has been launched and that a search for the culprits is underway. Security at nuclear sites in Russia has been boosted, RT reported.

Earlier, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said during a security conference in Moscow on Tuesday that there are no targets in Ukraine that warrant a Russian nuclear strike, so all claims that Russia could use nuclear weapons in its military operation are absurd.

"The use [of nuclear weapons] is restricted to emergencies only, as outlined in Russian guidelines that are publicly available," he added, noting that the weapons are meant as a deterrence against foreign aggression, RT reported.

Shoigu said that "claims of possible use of chemical weapons in Ukraine are absurd too", since Russia destroyed its stockpile in an effort that was completed in 2017. False accusations of such attacks have been used by Western-backed groups in Syria in the past, he added.

The Russian minister, who was speaking during the opening of the Moscow Conference for International Security, said the situation with strategic weapons reduction and control was at a difficult spot due to the ongoing confrontation between the US and Russia.