Western Officials Warn Russia Could Use a Dirty Bomb as a Pretext
New York TimesOct 25, 2022
On Tuesday, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — the UN's nuclear watchdog — began inspecting two sites in Ukraine at the center of "dirty bomb" allegations leveled by officials in Moscow. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the inspections would be completed soon. The IAEA are visiting the sites at Kyiv's invitation, and Ukrainian and Western officials have widely dismissed Russia's allegations.
Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to grapple with power outages in many parts of the country after a fresh round of Russian strikes on the nation's energy infrastructure on Monday. According to the Ukrainian government, Russia has destroyed about 40% of the country's energy infrastructure, affecting a total of 16 regions.
Russia's allegations of a "dirty bomb" are transparently false. The claims are a ploy being utilized by the Kremlin to justify a drastic escalation of the war.
Russia has collected evidence to back up its claims that Ukraine is plotting a dirty bomb, which it is prepared to provide to Western countries. These allegations must be taken seriously.
There's a 3% chance that at least one nuclear weapon will be detonated in Ukraine Before 2023, according to the Metaculus prediction community.