The Kremlin said it is raising the issue of Ukraine forces plotting a “dirty bomb” false flag attack, in order to lay blame on Russia for a mass casualty event, at the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
At the same time, Ukraine’s nuclear agency has counter-alleged that Russian forces could be preparing a “terrorist act” with radioactive materials from occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Energoatom said Tuesday that Russian troops have access to 174 containers of spent nuclear fuel, with which Russians could be “preparing an act of nuclear terrorism,” a statement asserted.
“Destruction of these containers as a result of explosion will lead to a radiation accident and radiation contamination of several hundred square kilometers (miles) of the adjacent territory,” Energoatom said while urging the UN atomic watchdog IAEA to intervene.
As for the ongoing allegations from Moscow of a “dirty bomb” plot, Putin office spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated in a fresh statement, “We again emphasize the grave danger posed by the plans hatched by the Ukrainians.”
The White House has rejected the allegations, saying “It’s just not true. We know it’s not true,” according to a press briefing by John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council. “In the past, the Russians have, on occasion, blamed others for things that they were planning to do.”
Russia has raised the matter in a letter submitted to the UNSC which spells out “We will regard the use of the ‘dirty bomb’ by the Kiev regime as an act of nuclear terrorism.”
“We call on the Secretary-General of the United Nations to do everything in his power to prevent this heinous crime from happening,” the letter continued.
“Amidst the anti-Russian propaganda campaign led by the Western countries, we would like to stress that the Russian Federation has not intended, nor intends to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” it stressed.
While it’s not the first time there have been competing ‘false flag’ allegations exchanged among both warring sides in Ukraine, it is the first time such charged and sensational accusations have been accompanied by threat of nuclear incident. Ukraine has meanwhile invited the IAEA to inspect the facilities on its soil named by Moscow as being potentially part of the dirty bomb plot, saying it has nothing to hide.
