Unsubstantiated

Ukraine invites nuclear experts to disprove unsubstantiated Russian "dirty bomb" claims

 Olga Voitovych

Ukraine has invited experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the country to disprove unsubstantiated Russian claims that Kyiv plans to use a “dirty bomb,” Ukraine’s foreign minister has said.

In a tweet on Monday, Dmytro Kuleba said he had spoken by telephone to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.

“In my call … I officially invited IAEA to urgently send experts to peaceful facilities in Ukraine which Russia deceitfully claims to be developing a dirty bomb,” he said.

“He [Grossi] agreed. Unlike Russia, Ukraine has always been and remains transparent. We have nothing to hide.”

Some context: Kyiv, the US and other Western officials have dismissed Moscow’s claims that Ukraine is planning to use a so-called “dirty bomb” as a Russian false flag operation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had called his counterparts in the US, Britain, France and Turkey in a phone “merry-go-round” to claim Ukraine planned to explode a weapon combining conventional explosives and uranium.

Zelensky said on Sunday: “If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means only one thing: Russia has already prepared all this.”