United Nations nuclear inspectors are being sent to two sites where Russia has alleged Ukraine could be working on a "dirty bomb". The inspections are being carried out at the request of the Kyiv government, International Atomic Energy agency chief Rafael Grossi said.
Mr Grossi said in a statement that the visits to the two sites in Ukraine, which are under IAEA safeguards, would take place this week. Allegations of a dirty bomb plot have been made by Russia's UN ambassador and by President Vladimir Putin and his defence minister, but have been rejected as "transparently false" by Western powers.
“The purpose of this week’s safeguards visits is to detect any possible undeclared nuclear activities and materials related to the development of ‘dirty bombs’,” the statement said. “The IAEA inspected one of the two locations a month ago and no undeclared nuclear activities or materials were found there.”
The statement did not identify the sites, but Russia’s UN ambassador alleged in a letter to Security Council members this week that Ukraine’s Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv and Vostochniy Mining and Processing Plant “have received direct orders from (President Volodymyr) Zelensky’s regime to develop such a dirty bomb”.
The envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, said that information was from Russia’s Ministry of Defence. He alleged that “the works are at their concluding stage” on a dirty bomb, which uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste in an effort to sow terror.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu made an unsubstantiated allegation that Ukraine was preparing to launch a so-called dirty bomb over the weekend in calls to his British, French, Turkish and US counterparts. Britain, France and the United States rejected the claim out of hand, but Mr Putin repeated the allegation.
Ukraine dismissed Moscow’s claim as an attempt to distract attention from the Kremlin’s own alleged plans to detonate a dirty bomb. This week, Russia has also been working on its first nuclear launch exercises since it invaded Ukraine in February.
Energoatom, the Ukrainian state enterprise that operates the country’s four nuclear power plants, said Russian troops have carried out secret construction work over the last week at the occupied Zaporizhzhia plant. They will not give access to Ukrainian staff running the plant or monitors from the IAEA that would allow them to see what the Russians are doing, Energoatom said in a statement.
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