Russia has accused Ukraine of planning to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb and blame it on Moscow. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu discussed the “rapidly deteriorating situation” in the Ukraine war in calls with NATO nations on Sunday.
Without providing evidence, Shoigu said Ukraine could escalate the conflict with a dirty bomb — a device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste. It does not have the devastating effect of a nuclear explosion, but it could expose broad areas to radioactive contamination.
“The purpose of the provocation is to accuse Russia of using weapons of mass destruction in the Ukrainian theatre of operations and thereby launch a powerful anti-Russian campaign in the world aimed at undermining confidence in Moscow,” the RIA Novosti news agency said on Telegram.
“The calculation of the organizers of the provocation is that if it is successfully implemented, most countries will react extremely harshly to the ‘nuclear incident’ in Ukraine,” the post said. “As a result, Moscow will lose the support of many of its key partners.” Russia provided no evidence to substantiate its allegation.
In response, the U.S., U.K., and France issued a joint statement calling the allegation a “pretext for escalation by Russia.” “Our countries made clear that we all reject Russia’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory,” the statement said. “The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation.”
A two-sentence readout of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s call with Shoigu simply said that Austin “rejected any pretext for Russian escalation and reaffirmed the value of continued communication,” while a British Defense Ministry tweet said U.K. Defense Minister Ben Wallace rejected Shoigu’s claims and “cautioned that such allegations should not be used as a pretext for greater escalation.”
In his Sunday night video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky flatly denied Ukraine would ever use a radioactive bomb and said it was Russia that resorts to weapons of terror.
“When today the Russian minister of defense organizes a phone carousel and calls foreign ministers with stories about the so-called dirty nuclear bomb, everyone understands everything well — understands who is the source of everything dirty that can be imagined in this war,” Zelensky said.
“It was Russia who blackmailed with the radiation disaster at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant … Russian troops who mined the dam and aggregates of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant are blackmailing with their detonation. It is Russia that uses phosphorus munitions, banned anti-personnel mines, and the entire range of weapons against civilian infrastructure.”
