The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation published on its Telegram channel a retelling of a briefing by the Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the RF Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who, like many other Russian officials, claims that Kiev instructed Ukrainian scientists to create the so-called dirty bomb, to arrange a provocation and blame Russia for this. At the same time, Kirillov provided his briefing with photographs that were designed to confirm these accusations.
This caught the attention of Center for Information Sustainability Investigation Director Benjamin Streeck and Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins, who analyzed the general's "evidence" and concluded that most of it actually featured Russian scientific papers.
Two pictures are signed as "Research reactors", which are allegedly at the disposal of Ukraine. But in one photo – Beloyarsk nuclear power plant. I.V. Kurchatov, located in the Sverdlovsk region, and on the other – the Novosibirsk Plant of Chemical Concentrates, which specializes in the production of nuclear fuel for power and research reactors.
But that's not all. The photograph, captioned as "Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, Institute for Nuclear Research at the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv – Uragan fusion facilities, BBP-M reactor", shows the Russian PIK reactor located at the St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics. B.P. Konstantinov. At the same time, the picture captures the moment when Vladimir Putin personally launched the power start of the reactor via video link.
There remains one more photograph, which depicts radioactive waste. When the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to support colleagues from the Ministry of Defense and published this “evidence” on its Twitter, the Slovenian government drew attention to this record, which recognized the photo of its Radioactive Waste Management Agency taken in 2010.
“Radioactive waste in Slovenia is stored safely and is under surveillance. They are not used to make any kind of dirty bombs,” the country’s government assured on its Twitter.
In addition, the Russian Defense Ministry used exactly the same photographs with which the Russian media last time accused the White Helmets organization of a staged chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun. Recall, then it turned out that the photos were taken from the filming of a feature film.
Finally, one of the photographs, captioned "Panic among the population and an increase in the flow of refugees", captures the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
And on the second – the forced displacement of Syrian civilians from the outskirts of Damascus, which was carried out by Russian troops.