In the war in Ukraine there is now much speculation about the possible use of nuclear weapons or a so-called dirty bomb. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu continued his phone calls on Wednesday, also telling his Indian and Chinese counterparts that Ukraine plans to use a dirty bomb and then blame it on Russia. Dirty bombs are conventional bombs that have been enriched with radioactive material. When they detonate, there is no nuclear explosion, but the radiating material is spread over a large area. Many square kilometers could be contaminated in this way.
Shoigu had already presented these alleged plans of Ukraine to the USA, France, Great Britain and Turkey at the weekend. Kyiv immediately denied the allegations. You don’t work on a weapon like that. France, Great Britain and the USA called the allegations wrong and in their joint statement described it as an attempt by Russia to justify further escalations in the war against Ukraine. Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh also warned Shoigu that neither side should use nuclear weapons, as this would violate the principle of humanity.
Slovenia refutes Russia’s portrayal
As alleged evidence of Ukraine’s development of a dirty bomb The Russian Foreign Ministry shared photos of possible sources of radioactive material on Twitter on Monday, deposits and research laboratories, for example. Another photo shows white cylinders in plastic bags with the radioactivity warning symbol printed on them. The Slovenian government then announced on Tuesday, the picture of the cylinders comes from a presentation by the Slovenian nuclear authority from 2010, which shows smoke detectors. These actually contained radioactive material, but unlike what Russia claims, neither uranium nor plutonium. Older smoke detectors work with small amounts of radioactive material.
There are still fears that Russia will spread its allegations against Ukraine in order to ultimately use such a weapon itself. The operator of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants, the concern Energoatom reported on Tuesday that the Russian occupiers were carrying out secret work at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and do not allow access to Ukrainian employees or observers from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Nuclear waste is stored on the power plant site, which could be used to build a dirty bomb. However, the construction work can also be harmless, as parts of the power plant were damaged in battles.
threatening gestures and diversionary maneuvers
Adding to fears that Russia is playing a double game was the fact that Russian forces practiced using nuclear weapons in an annual drill this week. Several rockets had been launched and, according to Defense Minister Shoigu, a Russian “counterstrike” had been practiced after a nuclear attack on Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin is said to have overseen the maneuvers.
With such actions, Moscow unmistakably wants to maintain the nuclear threat against the West and Ukraine. At the same time, the Kremlin could also want to distract attention from its own mistakes and an impending defeat in the occupied Ukrainian city of Cherson. Anyway the British secret service interpreted the message on Thursdaythat Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin was appointed regional coordinator for the “development of security measures” in the Russian regions. According to the daily briefing from the British, the Kremlin wants to outsource its problems to the regional authorities.
The same could also apply to Moscow’s claims about a Ukrainian dirty bomb. Putin’s attempts to draw world attention to his stories have always been ambiguous: he usually wants to keep as many options open as possible.