The Russian government has brought the issue of Ukraine’s “dirty bomb” to the UN today, hoping to reinforce the fiction that Ukraine has constructed such a weapon and will use it against Russian troops on its own territory.
“We will regard the use of the dirty bomb by the Kyiv regime as an act of nuclear terrorism,” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council in the letter, seen by Reuters.
NATO and the U.S. immediately dismissed the charges, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying that Russia was engaged in ‘mirror imaging.”
“We have seen a pattern in this conflict, in this war, in the lead-up to this war, where the Russians have engaged in mirror imaging,” said Price. “The Russians have accused the Ukrainians, the Russians have accused other countries, of what it itself was planning. That is our concern.”
Putin is stirring the nuclear pot, hoping to keep NATO and the U.S. off balance while he escalates the conflict.
The joint statement came after a flurry of calls between Western nations and Russian officials, which continued on Monday with a conversation between General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his Russian counterpart, General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian General Staff.
According to a readout of the call provided by General Milley’s spokesman, Col. Dave Butler, the two military leaders discussed “several security-related issues of concern and agreed to keep the lines of communication open.”
Colonel Butler did not elaborate further, but Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Telegram that the discussions included its dirty bomb claims.
Russia has gone all-in on pushing the dirty bomb fiction. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is sending inspectors — at Russia’s request — to two sites inside Ukraine where the Russians claim the dirty bombs are being made.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Russia’s accusation was a sign that Moscow – which has threatened to use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine – was planning such an attack and was preparing to shift the blame to Ukraine.
With Ukrainian forces advancing into Russian-occupied Kherson province, top Russian officials had phoned their Western counterparts on Sunday and Monday to air their suspicions.
France, Britain and the United States said the allegations were “transparently false” and Washington warned Russia there would be “severe consequences” for any nuclear use, while saying there were no signs of that yet.
Russia says it has made preparations for dealing with nuclear contamination due to what it claims are “threats” from Ukraine. The problem the Russian government has in convincing anyone that its warnings are based on reality is that Ukraine is winning without using a dirty bomb, so why use one on its own people?
Besides, dirty bombs are terror weapons, not very effective as tactical or strategic weapons.
It’s not unthinkable that Ukraine would use a dirty bomb in extremis. But it’s Russia who needs to terrorize Ukrainian citizens and lower their morale, not the other way around.
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