Disinfo: Kyiv will detonate a “dirty bomb” to accuse Russia

Summary

Kyiv will detonate a dirty bomb, or radiological weapon to accuse Russia of using weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine and thus launch a powerful anti-Russian campaign around the world aimed at undermining trust in Moscow.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about false flag operations and chemical weapons attacks. Such claims are a part of a broader pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign accompanying the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, trying to place the blame for the war's atrocities on Ukraine.

Moscow has a history of falsely accusing its opponents of staging "provocations" which either never happened at all or were subsequently carried out by themselves or their allies. In the weeks leading up to Russia#s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow repeatedly falsely claimed that Ukraine, assisted by US or Western forces, prepared a chemical attack or attacks on industry sites storing chemical agents.

There is no evidence to back the claim that Ukraine is preparing a dirty bomb. Оn the contrary, diplomats from France, Britain and the United States called Russia’s allegation a pretext that Moscow has concocted for escalating the war.

In the statement, the governments of France, UK and US confirmed that their Defence Ministers had each spoken with the Russian Defence Minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, and rejected “Russia’s transparently false allegations” about a dirty bomb.

“The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation,” the statement said.

A dirty bomb uses traditional explosives to spray radioactive material. Russia has not publicly offered evidence to back up the accusations and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has called the statements “lies.”

NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has warned Russia over its "false" claim that Kyiv might use a "dirty bomb" - conventional explosives laced with radioactive material.

Stoltenberg tweeted that the NATO allies "reject this allegation" and "Russia must not use it as a pretext for escalation".

Read similar cases claiming that Kyiv prepares chemical attacks to blame the Russian army, Ukraine is under control of the West and staged fakes about Bucha, Mariupol and Kramatorsk, West needs provocations to accuse the Russian military of using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Ukraine and that Ukraine aims to use Turkish Bayraktars for chemical attacks

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  • Reported in: Issue 314
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 24/10/2022
  • Article language(s) Italian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: false flag, Chemical weapons/attack, War in Ukraine, Invasion of Ukraine, war crimes
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Disinfo: Western lobby demands Zelenskyy raise stakes of the crisis

In February, Western lobby (US Democrats) and financial groups in London demanded that Zelenskyy heat up the war in Ukraine because some of them were facing an election year, while others wanted to win by taking away the gas valve from Germany and putting the whole of Europe on high gas and fuel prices.

Now Zelenskyy is being asked to raise the stakes of the Ukrainian crisis, e.g., wide offensive operations, man-made global disaster, a tragedy for the whole world, chemical, nuclear, environmental, or other reasons.

Oct 23, 2022
Disproof

Conspiracy theory and recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative questioning Ukrainian statehood and sovereignty. The goal of this narrative is to try to discredit Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a frequent target of pro-Kremlin disinformation, as a non-sovereign puppet of the West, accusing him and the West of provoking the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the democratically elected leader of Ukraine.

Disinfo: Russia forced into a conflict in "historical Russia"

Russia did not willingly enter into a conflict in "historical Russia", but it was forced to because many people want to eliminate Russia, since it is a "thorn in the eye" for them.

Oct 23, 2022
Disproof

This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin media denying Ukrainian statehood by claiming that it is part of "historical Russia". This claim was neither counterbalanced nor critically challenged in the article.

In reality, the territory of present-day Ukraine had been divided between the Russian Empire and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire for centuries. Many new countries appeared in Europe in the wake of Russia’s Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and World War One (1914-1918), the Ukrainian People’s republic (aka the Ukrainian National Republic) being one of these. It was later occupied by Communist Russia and forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union. Ukraine assumed its internationally recognised borders in 1991 when the USSR broke up.

Disinfo: The EU, not Russia, is behind the energy, food and economic crises

The EU continues to falsely accuse Russia of being responsible for provoking the food and energy crises, and now also the economic crisis. The EU purpose for spreading misinformation is clear - to obscure the facts that the energy, food and economic problems facing the world, especially developing countries, are primarily caused by the bad EU policies. These policies are deeply rooted in the Western mentality of merciless exploitation of natural and human resources in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as waging trade and economic wars against Russia, including the imposition of unilateral sanctions unprecedented in its scope and consequences for the global economy.

Oct 22, 2022
Disproof

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about sanctions in the context of the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The claim was neither counterbalanced nor critically challenged in the article.

The claim that sanctions are the cause of economic crisis is an attempt to deflect Russia's responsibility for the global food and energy crisis. In fact, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has destabilised global food markets and is driving food prices up due to increased cost of production, transport and freight insurance. Russia has also destroyed substantial food stocks, production, as well as processing and transport capacities in Ukraine.