“Dirty bomb”: what is the goal of Russia with its accusations against Ukraine?

Real threat or new bluff? Russia claimed on Monday that Ukraine had entered “the final stage” of manufacturing its “dirty bomb,” a claim that Moscow had been brandishing since Sunday and that Kyiv and its Western allies firmly reject.

This weekend, the Russian Minister of the Armed Forces, Sergueï Choïgou, had made these accusations during a phone call with several of his European counterparts, including Sébastien Lecornu. France, for its part, had indicated that it rejected “any form of escalation”, in particular nuclear.

“If Russia says that Ukraine is preparing something, it means only one thing: Russia has already prepared all this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted, accusing Moscow of seeking to justify an escalation of the conflict in this way.

red rag

On our antenna, General Jérôme Pellistrandi, defense consultant for BFMTV, wonders about the Russian objective in recent days and the series of accusations against Ukraine. According to him, technically, the use of this bomb would not have any military interest for Kyiv.

“What is the point of using a ‘dirty bomb’? It is a classic bomb in which we will add radioactive elements, completely contaminate a territory. Do they want to contaminate the Ukrainian territory? We do not see the military interest,” he explains.

in the columns of ParisianGeneral Dominique Trinquand, former head of the French military mission to the United Nations, assures for his part that Russia is trying here to divert attention from its multiplying military defeats, particularly in the Kherson region.

“The Russians have a habit of livening up the media landscape with fictitious threats to hide the real information of interest,” he says. Since the invasion of Ukraine last February, on several occasions various Russian officials had implicitly threatened to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

firm response

For General Pellistrandi, this maneuver is actually aimed at changing the narrative of the war while maintaining some pressure on the Ukrainian partners. “It increases the tension, the pressure, it is a way of wanting to tell the Europeans: ‘Be careful, the Ukrainians are not nice'”.

“Moscow seeks by all means to reverse the blame, the responsibility for the war. It is totally unreal and does not correspond to anything at the military level, ”adds the officer. This strategy was also used by Vladimir Putin when he launched his “special military operation” on February 24.

The various Ministers for Shelf Affairs contacted by Sergueï Choïgou were not fooled by this. In a joint statement issued on Monday, they warned: “No one is fooled by an attempt to use this accusation as a pretext for escalation.” On Monday night, the NATO chief also stated that Moscow should not use “a pretext” for “an escalation”.

A bomb that aims “to scare”

The very nature of these weapons raises questions. The term “dirty bomb”, also called “radiological dispersal device” (RDD), designates more generally any detonating device that disseminates one or more chemically or biologically toxic products (NRBC – nuclear, radiological, biological or chemical).

This type of bomb is not considered an atomic weapon, whose explosion results from nuclear fission (A-bomb) or fusion (H-bomb) and causes immense destruction over a wide radius. The manufacture of an atomic bomb requires the use of complex uranium enrichment technologies.

Much less complex to manufacture, the “dirty bomb” uses a conventional explosive and its primary purpose is to contaminate a geographic area and the people there by both direct radiation and ingestion or inhalation of radioactive materials.

“A dirty bomb is not a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ but a ‘weapon of mass disruption’ whose primary purpose is to contaminate and scare,” summarizes the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (US NRC).

The main danger from a “dirty bomb” comes from the explosion and not from radiation. Only people very close to the blast site would be exposed to enough radiation to cause immediate serious illness. However, radioactive dust and fumes can travel farther and pose a health hazard if the dust is inhaled or if contaminated food or water is eaten.