Russia accuses and Ukraine responds. to the words of Sergei ShoiguRussian Defense Minister, who assured this Sunday that kyiv intended to use a “dirty bomb”, has followed the reply of the Ukrainian president to disprove it. “If anyone can use nuclear weapons in this part of Europe, it can only be one source, and that source is the one who has ordered Comrade Shoigu to phone here or there,” she concluded in a brief comment.
Zelensky’s speech, who waited until late in the afternoon to make a statement on the matter, shows Ukraine’s position in this situation: Russia is looking for a context with which to be able to act more aggressively on a front line that, with each passing day, recedes in the direction of Moscow.
The explanation provided by Shoigu is the opposite. For the Kremlin, as confirmed by the news agency RIA Novostikyiv is preparing a “provocation” with a dirty bomb on its own territory to blame Russia for it and ultimately seek the reaction of the West with a “hard response”.
[Rusia acusa a Ucrania de un incremento de la tensión y de provocar con una “bomba sucia”]
Discussions aside, the threat of a nuclear attack hangs over the war for some time now. Putin assured, even before the occupied regions were annexed through referendums, that he would defend his borders at all costs, even if the use of atomic weapons depended on it. The campaign at the front is not going as plannedIn fact, in none of the hot zones has it gained loose control since the invasion began. Proof of this is that Ukraine’s partisan action on occupied territory has not diminished, as it seemed it was going to happen, but has intensified in recent weeks.
This anxiety about not being able to contain the situation, even with the arrival of the first volunteers, is what worries kyiv and, de facto, the West. Ukraine advances and cities like Kherson, claimed by Putin, are close to surrender. It remains, therefore, in the hands of the highest representative of Moscow, whether or not to fulfill his threat to defend with “all his might” a territory that he claims as his own.
Russia is, in addition to the data currently available, the country that has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. In times of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine was one of the silos of warheads and missiles aimed at Europe, however, these were totally or partially dismantled. The fact that kyiv lacks this type of heavy weaponry is another reason why Moscow considers it feasible to build a dirty bomb. The materials are within its reach – it has plenty of conventional explosives and can use waste from its plants as a radioactive element – and manufacturing is simple.
[Un millón de ucranianos se queda sin luz por los bombardeos mientras Rusia evacúa Jersón]
In the past, terrorist groups have used these types of weapons to threaten populations. In 1995, a Chechen extremist group planted a dirty bomb in a Moscow park, which failed to explode as it was a show of force.
