Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
Ukraine is in the “final stage” of creating a “dirty bomb,” says a senior Russian official, referring to a device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the chief of the Russian Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Force, said on Monday that Ukraine had nearly completed developing what he called a “dirty bomb.”
“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,” Kirillov said in a statement. He added that Kiev was planning to accuse Russia of “using weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine and thus launch a powerful anti-Russian campaign in the world.”
According to the statement, the so-called dirty bomb will be composed of radioactive elements “creating radioactive contamination over large areas, and potentially also leading to radiation diseases” after detonation.
Kirillov’s warning came just a day after Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused Ukraine of preparing a “provocation” involving the use of such a bomb.
According to the Kremlin, Shoigu sounded the alert in phone calls on Sunday with his NATO counterparts from the United States, Britain, France and Turkey.
While it does not have the devastating effects of a nuclear weapon, a dirty bomb could still contaminate large swathes of land with radioactive waste.
Russian officials have repeatedly alleged that Ukraine could detonate such a device in a false-flag operation to frame Moscow. Ukrainian authorities have made similar accusations against Russia.
Separately on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergeه Lavrov also raised the issue of the “dirty bomb” purportedly being developed by Ukraine at a press conference following talks with Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Hissein Brahim Taha.
Lavrov said Moscow had already taken steps to raise the issue in international structures, “first of all” at the United Nations.
Lavrov said the Kremlin was not surprised by the West’s media reaction to Ukraine’s possible use of such a bomb due to the “unconditional support that the West gives to its protégé [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky.”
