AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Russia has accused Ukraine of covertly smuggling radioactive materials through Poland and Romania to assemble a potential “dirty bomb” for a false-flag operation, an allegation Kyiv and its Western partners have repeatedly denied.
At a briefing on Thursday, Major General Aleksey Rtishchev, head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops, claimed Ukraine was engaging in what he described as “nuclear blackmail,” posing serious environmental and security threats to Europe.
Rtishchev alleged that spent radioactive fuel had been transferred without notification to the International Atomic Energy Agency, in violation of international nuclear safety regulations.
He said the operation was overseen by Andrey Yermak, a senior former aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky who stepped down last month following a corruption scandal.
According to Rtishchev, the materials could be used to construct a so-called dirty bomb, a conventional explosive designed to spread radioactive contamination rather than cause a nuclear detonation.
Russian officials also claimed to possess Ukrainian security-service training materials simulating the theft of radioactive sources, bomb assembly, and detonation in densely populated areas.
Rtishchev accused Western governments of enabling breaches of nuclear oversight frameworks and warned that the weakening of Ukrainian state institutions could place “a number of European states on the verge of an environmental catastrophe.”
Moscow has repeatedly warned that Ukraine could stage a dirty-bomb incident to derail US-mediated peace efforts, a scenario Russian officials say would carry extreme risks and could prompt a severe response from Russia.
