Speculations from Russia that Ukraine was ready to use a “dirty bomb” as a major escalation in their eight-month-old war were blasted by Kyiv as hazardous lies on Sunday.
Just hours after Russia made the astonishing assertions public, Ukraine’s western allies likewise denied the claims from Moscow.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed “concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine with the use of a ‘dirty bomb,'” Moscow said, referring to a weapon that utilizes conventional explosives to distribute radioactive material. Shoigu spoke with his equivalents in the UK, France, and Turkey.
President Zelensky responded by claiming that Russia was “the source of everything dirty that can be imagined in this war.”
At the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia that it had seized, he claimed that Russia was posing a “radiation disaster” threat to the entire world. He also mentioned Moscow’s threats to blow up a sizable dam in southern Ukraine. The charges are refuted by the Kremlin.
The head of Ukraine emphasized that “the world should react in the toughest way” as well.
As for Mr. Shoigu’s claims that “Ukraine was planning actions facilitated by Western countries, including the UK, to escalate the situation in Ukraine,” Mr. Wallace said he denied those claims.
He also advised against using such statements as “a pretext for further escalation”
In a second phone call in a matter of days, the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, made similar remarks to Mr. Shoigu on Sunday.
Military observers point out that the Russian charges follow a run of significant military setbacks for Russia and coincide with Ukrainian forces’ ongoing counteroffensive operations in the east and south of the nation.
In several tweets, the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) claimed that Mr. Shoigu “likely sought to slow or suspend Western military aid to Ukraine and possibly weaken the Nato alliance in scare-mongering calls.”
The ISW nevertheless added: “the Kremlin is unlikely to be preparing an imminent false-flag dirty bomb attack. Shoigu’s claims further a longstanding Russian information campaign .”
