NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg on “dirty bombs”: Russia should not use “false statements” as a pretext for escalating the war

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has warned that Russia should not use “false claims” about “dirty bombs” as an excuse to escalate the war in Ukraine.

He stated this in an interview with Politico.

“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. Russia should not use these false accusations or claims as any pretext for further escalating the war in Ukraine,” the NATO Secretary General said.

Stoltenberg emphasized that it is “absurd” to say that Ukraine will use a dirty bomb “on its own territory”, for the liberation of which Kyiv is “fighting so hard”.

The NATO chiefʼs comments came after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told his British, French and Turkish counterparts over the weekend that Ukraine may be preparing to use a “dirty bomb”, a device that combines conventional explosives with radioactive materials.

• Russian propagandists (and with them, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Shoigu) are spreading information that Ukraine is going to detonate a so-called “dirty bomb” — a nuclear weapon — on its territory and then blame it on Russia.
• On October 23, the head of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, Sergei Shoigu, spoke with the defense ministers of France, Turkey, and Great Britain. He told them about the so-called “dirty bomb” that Ukraine is allegedly preparing. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba responded to Shoiguʼs statements and noted that Russians often accuse others of what they themselves are planning.
• Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov considers the Russian statement to be nuclear blackmail. He discussed it with the defense ministers of France, Great Britain, Turkey, and the USA, stressing that Ukraine is open to any monitoring mission. Official Washington said that it does not believe the statement of the Russian side.