Kyiv has condemned a claim that Russia has made that Ukrainian forces are using a bomb that is laced with radioactive materials.
Responding to the allegations made by Russia, the Ukrainian President, Vlodomyr Zelensky, said that Russia could be preparing an attack in a similar manner.
The US and other Ukrainian allies also rejected the claims made by Russia about its escalation of the war.
The claims were made by Russian Defence Minister Sergi Shoigu, who remarked about a dirty bomb used by Ukrainian forces during a call with the British Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace.
He said that he was concerned about the “possible provocation from Kyiv” and the use of ” a dirty bomb”.
He also contacted his US, French, and Turkish counterparts on the phone to warn them about Moscow’s worries, without any substantial evidence to support his claims.
To this, President Zelensky responded by referring to Russia as “the source of everything dirty that can be imagined in this war”.
He said that Russia was threatening the whole world with a “radiation disaster” when they captured the Zaporizhzhiza nuclear power plant and about Moscow’s threat to blow up a major reservoir in the southern part of the country. All these allegations were rejected by Russia.
Zelensky said that the world should take tough actions against Russia.
In a phone call to Mr. Wallace, Minister Shoigu said that the Western countries, including the UK, were facilitating Ukraine in its actions and thereby escalating the current situation in Ukraine.
Wallace responded that these allegations should not be used as an excuse to escalate the war in Ukraine.
The same remarks were made by General Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defence, to whom Mr. Shoigu spoke on Sunday, the second phone call in two days in a similar manner.
A joint statement released by the British, French, UK, and US foreign ministers said that they rejected the Russian claims that Ukraine was going to use a “dirty bomb” in its own territory and that they would continue to support Ukraine in its fight against Putin’s ” war of aggression”.
According to the US-based Institute for the Study of War, these remarks came after several Russian losses and with the advent of ongoing Ukrainian offensive operations in the East and South. They were targeted to reduce the West’s support for Ukraine and to weaken Ukraine’s NATO support.
