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On Sunday, the US, UK, and France jointly denied Russian assertions that Ukraine is planning to use a dirty bomb and urged Moscow to refrain from using any excuse to escalate the conflict.
Earlier on Sunday, during a series of phone contacts with Western defence leaders, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu repeated the claim about a potential dirty bomb assault.
The US State Department, the British government, and the French government issued a joint statement saying that “our countries made plain that we all reject Russia’s transparently baseless assertions that Ukraine is prepared to use a dirty bomb on its own territory.”
Any attempt to use this claim as a justification for escalation would be exposed by the world, the statement continued. We also reject any justification for a Russian military escalation.
A “dirty bomb” is one that is intended to spread radioactive contamination over a large region, endangering nearby humans. No nuclear detonation is involved.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, vehemently refuted Moscow’s assertions, calling them a Russian ruse to justify a specific strike in the eight-month conflict Moscow has been engaged in with its pro-Western neighbour. He said, “The world ought to respond with the greatest severity.”
If Russia calls and claims that Ukraine is purportedly preparing anything, it only means that Russia has already made all of these preparations, Mr. Zelensky stated in a social media video speech.
Mr. Zelensky stated that “even the very Russian threat of nuclear weapons—and even more so against our country, which has given up its nuclear arsenal…is a basis for both sanctions and for the further strengthening of support for Ukraine.”
Following his initial Friday conversation with Mr. Austin, Mr. Shoigu held a series of telephone meetings with counterparts from the NATO nations Turkey, Britain, and France.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that during the calls, Mr. Shoigu expressed “concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine with the use of a ‘dirty bomb'”.
In what the Pentagon described as a follow-up call to their conversation on Friday, Mr. Shoigu and Mr. Austin spoke on Sunday.
In response to Russia’s illegal and illegitimate assault against Ukraine, Secretary Austin “rejected any justification for Russian escalation and reiterated the necessity of continuing communication,” Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said in a statement following the speech.
Only two calls had been made between Mr. Shoigu and Mr. Austin since Moscow sent soldiers to Ukraine on February 24.
