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MOSCOW — The Kremlin is standing by its allegation that Ukraine may be preparing to detonate a so-called dirty bomb, which disperses radioactive material, though Ukraine, the United States, Britain and France have dismissed Moscow’s claim.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the claim in phone calls with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, France and Turkey.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Shoigu voiced concern about “possible Ukrainian provocations involving a ‘dirty bomb,’” a device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive material.
Such a device doesn’t have the devastating effect of a nuclear explosion, but could expose broad areas to radioactive contamination.
The Russian Defense Ministry and the Kremlin didn’t publicly offer any specific information to back up its claim.
But speaking during Monday’s call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Shoigu’s warning reflected a real threat.
“Their distrust of the information that has been provided by the Russian side doesn’t mean that the threat of using such a dirty bomb doesn’t exist,” Peskov said. “Such a threat exists, and the defense minister has given the information about it to his interlocutors. It’s up to them whether to trust it or not.”
Western allies said they reject “Russia’s transparently false allegations” and warned they would “see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov says that Russian forces aren’t going to pull back from the key southern city of Kherson any time soon.
He said in an interview published Monday that the Russians are beefing up their defenses in the city amid a parallel effort to evacuate officials and encourage civilians to leave.
“In many aspects, it’s an information operation and a manipulation,” Budanov said, adding that the evacuation effort has “created an illusion that the game is lost.”
“At the same time, they are bringing in new military units and preparing the streets of the city for defense,” he added.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s presidential office said Monday that at least six civilians were killed and another five were wounded by Russian shelling of several Ukrainian regions over the previous 24 hours.
The city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region has come under the most intense attacks.
“The Russians have been shelling power plants, schools and hospitals, subjecting the elderly and the disabled to suffering and death in the cold and darkness,” Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said in televised remarks.
The southern Mykolaiv region also came under Russian shelling that targeted energy facilities.
Kyiv and seven other regions planned rolling blackouts Monday as authorities worked to fix the damage to energy facilities inflicted by the Russian bombardment.
Ukrainians were again asked to avoid using energy-hungry home appliances in an effort to lower the load on electricity networks.