Russia has told the United Nations Security Council that Ukraine will use a “dirty bomb” containing radioactive fabrics on its own territory, a claim rejected by Western and Ukrainian officials as a pretext to escalate the war.
Moscow sent a letter detailing the allegations to the UN on Monday and raised the issue in a closed-door meeting with the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.
“We are happy because we have raised awareness,” Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, told reporters.
“I wouldn’t mind other people saying Russia is crying if this doesn’t happen because it’s a horrible disaster that potentially threatens the entire Earth. “
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday repeated the accusations Russia and the West had been foolish to reject them.
This follows Moscow’s indications that it would possibly be forced to use a tactical nuclear weapon contrary to Ukraine, whose president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the dirty bomb accusation showed Moscow preparing for such an attack and seeking to blame Kyiv.
As Ukrainian forces join Russian-occupied Kherson province, threatening a major defeat for Moscow, Russian officials telephoned their Western counterparts on Sunday and Monday to express their suspicions.
Russia alleged that Kyiv ordered two organizations to create a grimy bomb, an explosive device containing radioactive materials, and offered no evidence.
France, Britain and the United States said the allegations were “manifestly false” and Washington warned Russia that any use of nuclear weapons would have “serious consequences”.
“We have noticed or heard some new evidence,” Britain’s deputy ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki, told reporters on Tuesday, referring to Russia’s “blatantly false accusations. “
He added: “This is natural Russian disinformation of the kind we’ve noticed many times before and it stops. “
The Russian Defense Ministry said the aim of a dirty bomb attack across Ukraine would be to blame Moscow for radioactive contamination, for which it said Russia had begun to prepare.
In an obvious reaction to Moscow’s accusations, the U. N. nuclear watchdog said it was preparing to send inspectors to two unidentified Ukrainian sites at Kyiv’s request, either of which is already subject to its inspections.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said inspectors would have full access and called on Moscow to show the same transparency as Ukraine.
Russia’s state news firm, RIA, knew what it said were the two sites: the Eastern Mineral Enrichment Plant in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and the Kyiv Nuclear Research Institute.
President Vladimir Putin has spoken publicly about the dirty bomb allegations, but said Tuesday that Russia wants to simplify decision-making on what it calls its “special army operation. “
Speaking at the first assembly of a new coordinating council tasked with managing the government’s work at the front of the house, Putin said greater coordination of government structures and regions is needed.