MOSCOW —
Russia on Monday claimed that
Ukraine was in the “final stages” of developing a
so-called dirty bomb to use against Moscow’s forces, allegations Kyiv said were
“absurd” and could signal Russia’s battlefield plans.
اضافة اعلان
The claim from
Moscow comes after a string of unexpected and rare calls between Russian
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu with counterparts from several
NATO countries,
in which he said Kyiv was planning to deploy the weapon.
But they also
follow on the back of weeks of military defeats for Russia in southern and
eastern Ukraine, with observers of the conflict and Kyiv saying the Kremlin was
becoming increasing desperate.
“According to the
information we have, two organizations in Ukraine have specific instructions to
create a so-called ‘dirty bomb.’ This work is in its final stage,” Lt. Gen.
Igor Kirillov said on Monday.
At its most
basic, a dirty bomb is a conventional bomb laced with radioactive, biological,
or chemical materials which are disseminated in an explosion.
Inspection mission
Since Russia’s allegations and thinly veiled threat of potential nuclear
escalation in the Ukraine fighting, both Kyiv and its allies have fiercely
rejected the claim.
Ukrainian Foreign
Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the head of the UN nuclear agency (
IAEA), Rafael
Grossi, accepted his request to “urgently send experts to peaceful facilities
in Ukraine, which Russia deceitfully claims to be developing a dirty bomb”.
The UK, the US,
and France issued a joint statement dismissing the claim earlier on Monday.
“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,” according to
the statement.
Ukraine has
managed, with the help of Western-supplied heavy weapons, to claw back swathes
of its territory from Russia in the east and south, while its power grid has
been pummeled ahead of winter’s arrival.
As momentum has
swung toward Ukraine, Russian President
Vladimir Putin has faced fissures in
domestic support for his campaign, as a messy draft of troops and battlefield
losses challenged notions of quick conclusion.
Neither side in
the conflict are near sitting down for peace talks. Putin is under intense
pressure to achieve a result he can call victory and the Ukrainians are
generally intensely mobilized to take back their territory.
The Kremlin said
on Monday that France and Germany were showing “no desire” to participate in
mediation on the conflict and praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
offer to organize talks.
Turkey helped broker the
deal that allowed grain exports to resume under the UN’s aegis in July, and
also played a role in a prisoner swap in September, one of the largest
exchanges.
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