The Ukrainian president on Sunday rejected Moscow’s accusations that kyiv intends to launch a “dirty bomb” on its territory and accuse Russia, as the Russian Defense Minister said in telephone conversations with NATO countries.
“If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is preparing something, it means only one thing: Russia has already prepared everything. I think that now the world should react as strongly as possible,” Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
Zelensky was referring to calls made by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to his French, British, Turkish and American counterparts, warning that Ukraine was preparing “a provocation” with a “dirty bomb” containing radioactive elements, which it would explode on its own territory and then blame Moscow.
If Russia has prepared “a new phase of escalation [do conflito]You must see now, preventively and in the face of one of your ‘dirty maneuvers’, that the world will not accept this”, stressed the Ukrainian president.
Zelensky considered that the Russian threat to use nuclear weapons against his country “is a reason not only for sanctions but for even greater support for Ukraine.”
“Even more, against our country, which has given up its nuclear arsenal,” he added.
Hours earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had declared on social media that “Russian fables that Ukraine is preparing to use a ‘dirty bomb’ are as absurd as they are dangerous.”
“The Russians often accuse others of what they themselves are preparing,” he added.
In his daily address to the nation, Zelensky said that wherever Russia goes “it leaves behind mass graves, torture chambers, destroyed cities and towns, mined land, destroyed infrastructure and natural disasters.”
In fact, he pointed out, it was Russia “who blackmailed with a radiation catastrophe” at the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, and it is Russian missiles that pass over Ukraine’s nuclear facilities.
Russian troops also mined the Kakhovka dam and “are extorting its detonation”, and it is Russia “that uses phosphorus munitions, prohibited anti-personnel mines and the full range of weapons against civilian infrastructure”, he continued.
“There is only one person who will be able to use nuclear weapons in our part of Europe, and that person is the one who ordered Comrade Shoigu to phone somewhere,” he defended.
The White House also reacted to the same “dirty bomb” accusations from Ukraine made today by the Russian Defense Minister, in a phone call to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, telling his National Security Council spokesman that such statements are “clearly false”. .
The United States rejects “the clearly false accusations of the [da Defesa russo, Serguei] Shoigu, according to which Ukraine is preparing to use a ‘dirty bomb’ on its own territory,” Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
“The world will not be fooled if such an accusation is tried to be used as a pretext for an escalation” in the conflict, he warned.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 13 million people -more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.7 million to European countries-, according to the latest data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the international community in general, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political sanctions on Russia. and economic. .
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war, which today entered its day 242, 6,306 civilians dead and 9,602 wounded, highlighting that these figures are well below the real ones.
Source: TSF
