As Moscow presses unfounded claims to India and China that Ukraine is developing a “dirty bomb”, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday is said to have surveyed drills carried out by his nuclear-capable forces. These drills are the latest in a series of escalatory comments from Moscow and Putin that the eight-month conflict in Ukraine could turn nuclear.
Putin happened to observe the drills from a control room.
“Under the leadership of… Vladimir Putin, a training session was held with ground, sea and air strategic deterrence forces, during which practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles took place,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Russian state-run media ran footage of a submarine crew preparing the launch of a Sineva ballistic missile from the Barents Sea in the Arctic. The drills also included launching test missiles from the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East.
Footage of the drills across state media came following Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu pressing ahead with telephone calls to his counterparts globally, claiming that Ukraine was developing a “dirty bomb”. Shoigu has made these claims in recent days to counterparts from NATO countries. He reiterated them to his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe on Wednesday.
Shoigu also voiced the same “concerns” in a phone call with India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh earlier on Wednesday, Moscow said.
Dismissing the allegations as “absurd” and “dangerous,” Ukraine suggested the claims could be cover for Russia’s own plans on the battlefield, as have its western allies, including Britain, France and the United States.
A dirty bomb is a conventional bomb laced with radioactive, biological or chemical materials which are disseminated in an explosion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier Wednesday that Russia had information pertaining to the “existing threat” of Ukraine using a “dirty bomb” and that Kyiv was “preparing for such a terrorist act of sabotage”.
He added, “We will continue vigorously bringing our point of view to the world community to encourage them to take active steps to prevent such irresponsible behaviour.”
