Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Sunday, October 23, held talks with three colleagues from different countries – France, Turkey and the UK – and told them about the threat of a "dirty bomb" that Ukraine allegedly plans to detonate on its territory, RBC reports .
The first message about the "dirty bomb" appeared on the website of the RIA Novosti agency on Sunday morning. It said, with reference to "trustworthy sources in different countries", that Kyiv was preparing a provocation on the territory of its country related to the detonation of the so-called "dirty bomb" or low-yield nuclear weapon.
“The purpose of the provocation is to accuse Russia of using weapons of mass destruction in the Ukrainian theater of operations and thereby launch a powerful anti-Russian campaign in the world aimed at undermining confidence in Moscow,” RIA Novosti reports.
As stated in the material, the calculation of the organizers of the provocation is that if it is successfully implemented, most countries will react extremely harshly to the “nuclear incident” in Ukraine. As a result, Moscow will lose the support of many of its key partners, and the West will again try to raise the issue of depriving Russia of the status of a permanent member of the UN Security Council and increase anti-Russian rhetoric.
Also, according to RIA, the leadership of the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant, located in the city of Zhovti Vody, Dnepropetrovsk region, as well as the Kyiv Institute for Nuclear Research, was tasked with making a “dirty bomb” and work on it is allegedly already at the final stage.
Earlier, Russia accused Ukraine of preparing to undermine the dam on the Kakhovka reservoir. According to pro-Kremlin sources, in this way the Ukrainian army expects to completely encircle Russian troops on the right bank of the Dnieper.
On October 19, the commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, announced that the Ukrainian troops were preparing a massive missile attack on the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, and the occupying "authorities" of the Kherson region announced a mass evacuation to Russian territory.
The Insider spoke to military experts, and they all agree that blowing up the dam makes no military sense for Ukraine. Russia could theoretically blow up the dam itself in an attempt to hold Kherson, but that would be madness. Most likely, the occupying authorities deliberately whip up panic in order to force the local population to leave.