Russia brought Ukraine’s ‘dirty bomb’ claim to the UN when the West denied it was false According to Reuters
© Reuters. A local man throws debris from a broken window in a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian missile attack in Mykolaiv, Ukraine October 23, 2022. REUTERS / Valentyn Ogirenko
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By Humeyra Pamuk and Pavel Polityuk
WASHINGTON/KYIV (Reuters) – The United States warned on Monday there would be dire consequences if Russia used nuclear weapons in Ukraine, while Russia announced that Kyiv was planning to deploy a “dirty bomb.” to the United Nations.
As Ukrainian forces entered the Russian-occupied Kherson province, top Russian officials called their Western counterparts on Sunday and Monday to tell them about Moscow’s suspicions.
The foreign ministers of France, Britain and the United States rejected the accusations as “clearly untrue” and reaffirmed their support for Ukraine in a joint statement.
“The world will see any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation,” they said.
Then the United States issued a warning to Moscow.
“We have been very clear with the Russians … about the serious consequences of nuclear use,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price. “There will be consequences for Russia whether they use a dirty bomb or a nuclear bomb.”
Russia says it has no intention of using nuclear weapons. It sent a letter about its statement on Kyiv to the UN on Monday and will raise the issue with the Security Council during its meeting on Tuesday.
“We will consider the use of dirty bombs by the Kyiv regime as an act of nuclear terrorism,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia wrote in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council.
Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov spoke to the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, on Monday, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
US officials said there was no indication that Moscow had made a decision to use dirty bombs or any nuclear weapons.
“We continue to see nothing of the Russian side’s preparations for the use of nuclear weapons,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby (NYSE:) told reporters.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the purpose of a “dirty bomb” attack by Ukraine would be to blame Russia for the consequences of radioactive contamination. The ministry said it has begun preparing for such a scenario, readying forces and resources “to carry out missions under radioactive contamination.”
The United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Monday it was preparing to send inspectors in the coming days to two Ukrainian sites at Kyiv’s request, in an apparent response to the announcement. dirty bombs” of Russia. It said both locations were checked and one was checked a month ago.
Russia’s state news agency RIA earlier identified what it said were two sites involved in the operation – the Eastern Mineral Enrichment Plant in central Dnipropetrovsk and the Nuclear Research Institute in Kyiv. The IAEA statement did not name the facilities it would inspect.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of being a sign that Moscow was planning such an attack and would blame Ukraine.
“If Russia calls and says Ukraine is supposed to be preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has prepared all of this,” Zelenskiy said in an overnight speech.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said late Monday he had discussed in detail with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “way to end Russia’s nuclear blackmail.”
EVALUATE
Russia has ordered civilians to evacuate from territory it controls on the west bank of the Dnipro River, where Ukrainian forces are advancing this month shortly after Moscow announced its annexation of the area.
A Russian defeat would be one of Moscow’s biggest since the invasion eight months ago.
The regional capital Kherson is the only major city Russia has captured intact since the 24 February invasion, and its only foothold on the western bank of the Dnipro, which bisects Ukraine. The province controls the gateway to Crimea, a peninsula that Russia seized and announced it annexed in 2014.
Russian-installed authorities in Kherson on Monday announced that the men who stay will have the option of joining a military self-defense unit. Kyiv accused Russia of sending the press into occupied areas to set up an army, a war crime under the Geneva Convention.
Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s director of military espionage, said Russian forces were preparing to defend the city of Kherson, not withdraw.
“They are creating the illusion that all is lost. However, at the same time they are transferring new army units and preparing to defend the streets of Kherson,” he told the Ukrainska online media agency. Pravda.
Since Russia’s forces suffered a major defeat on the battlefield in September, President Vladimir Putin has escalated the war, calling for hundreds of thousands of reservists, announcing the annexation of occupied territory, and repeatedly. threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend the Russian mainland.
This month, Russia began a new campaign using long-range cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure before winter begins.
Russian state television is flooded with talk shows with experts who are openly cheering attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
On Monday, Russian state TV presenter Anton Krasovsky apologized for remarks in which he called for Ukrainian children to be drowned in rivers and burned alive in crucified huts. He also joked that Ukrainian grandmothers were saving their funeral funds to pay for the Russian soldiers who raped them.
Krasovsky has been suspended from Russia’s state-funded international channel RT, and Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had requested a report on his “sharp comments”.