Russia’s dirty bomb claim ‘absurd’- Stoltenberg

Stoltenberg said this in an interview with Politico on Monday, October 24.

“The allegation that Ukraine is preparing to use dirty bombs in Ukraine is absurd,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with POLITICO at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters.

Stoltenberg said that it was also absurd to say Ukraine would use a dirty bomb “on its own territory,” which Kyiv is “fighting so hard to liberate.” 

The secretary-general also said that the military alliance is worried that Russia’s rhetoric could be part of a long-standing pattern of behavior. 

“What makes us concerned is that this is part of a pattern we have seen before from Russia — in Syria, but also at the start of the war, or just before the war started in February. And that is that Russia is accusing others [of] doing what they intend to do themselves," Stoltenberg said.

On October 23, Russian Defense Minister Serhii Shoigu called NATO countries and accused Ukraine of preparing provocations with a "dirty bomb".

On October 24, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, announced that IAEA experts will come to Ukraine to inspect peaceful facilities where the "dirty bomb" is allegedly being developed.

On October 24, Mykola Malomuzh, General of the Army of Ukraine, Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine from 2005 to 2010, said that Russia's strategic message was to accuse Ukraine of subversive terrorist acts that Russians might carry out in the temporarily occupied or other territories.