Russia raises Ukraine ‘dirty bomb’ accusation at UN
- At the closed-door meeting of the Security Council, however, Moscow did not provide new evidence for claims of a plot to use the radioactive device
- Kyiv has asked for inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog in apparent response to the allegations
Russia on Tuesday took its accusation that Ukraine was preparing to use a dirty bomb – an explosive device laced with radioactive material – to the United Nations Security Council, voicing its concerns during a closed-door meeting of the 15-member body.
“We’re quite satisfied because we raised the awareness,” Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters. “I don’t mind people saying that Russia is crying wolf if this doesn’t happen because this is a terrible, terrible disaster that threatens potentially the whole of the Earth.”
Russia has alleged that Kyiv has ordered two organisations to create a dirty bomb, without giving any evidence. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia sent a letter to the United Nations on Monday detailing the accusations.
“We’ve seen and heard no new evidence,” Britain’s Deputy UN Ambassador James Kariuki told reporters, referring to Russia’s “transparently false allegations”. He added: “This is pure Russian misinformation of the kind of we’ve seen many times before and it should stop.”
When asked what evidence Russia had to back its claims, Polyanskiy told reporters that it was intelligence information that had been shared with Western counterparts with the “necessary level of clearance”.
The UN nuclear watchdog – the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – is preparing to send inspectors in the coming days to two Ukrainian sites at Kyiv’s request – an apparent reaction to Russia’s dirty bomb claims.