Russia using Ukraine to try to cover own nuclear plans says expert
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Former NATO Commander Wesley Clark has slapped down Russia’s claim that Ukraine is planning to use a “dirty bomb,” and argued the accusation from Moscow could be a warning that Vladimir Putin has nuclear plans of his own. Kyiv and Moscow have trade accusations amid growing fears that Putin may look to use the “dirty bomb” claim to launch a “preemptive” strike using a tactical nuke in order to hold back advancing Ukrainian army forces threatening to push out the invaders.
Mr Clark told CNN: “It’s an effort to distract and bring criticism and to just put chaos into the public dialogue about Ukraine.
“We don’t know all the reasons why Russia would say this, but it’s certainly a way of covering their own preparations possibly to use a nuclear weapon, possibly in their Kherson area, possibly by saying they struck first to prevent Ukraine from doing this.
“We just don’t know but what we do know is it’s not true.
“It is propaganda, it’s information war.”
Russia has doubled down on a warning that Ukraine is preparing to use a “dirty bomb” on its own territory, an assertion dismissed by the West and Kyiv as false, and was expected to bring the issue to the UN Security Council later on Tuesday.
Moscow sent a letter detailing its allegations about Kyiv to the United Nations late on Monday, and diplomats said Russia planned to raise the issue at a closed meeting with the Security Council on Tuesday.
“We will regard the use of the dirty bomb by the Kyiv regime as an act of nuclear terrorism,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council in the letter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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.
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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.
“There would be consequences for Russia whether it uses a dirty bomb or a nuclear bomb,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
The White House said there was no indication Russia had decided to use a dirty bomb or any nuclear weapon.
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“We continue to see nothing in the way of preparations by the Russian side for the use of nuclear weapons,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Russia’s defence ministry said the aim of a “dirty bomb” attack by Ukraine would be to blame Moscow for the resulting radioactive contamination, which Russia had begun preparing for.
The UN nuclear watchdog said it was preparing to send inspectors to two unidentified Ukrainian sites at Kyiv’s request, both already subject to its inspections, in an apparent response to Russia’s “dirty bomb” claim.
Russia’s state news agency RIA has identified what it said were the two sites involved in the operation – the Eastern Mineral Enrichment Plant in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv.
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