Russian propaganda, russia news, Nuclear blackmail, ukraine war, dirty bomb

Fake: "Western countries continue to import radiochemical substances into Ukraine for disposal, which can be used to make a 'dirty bomb,'" the kremlin media quoted one of the russian generals. The general of the terrorist state added that "according to operational information", the main routes for the supply of radiochemical substances pass through Poland and Romania, while organizational, logistical and financial issues are personally overseen by the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak."

Truth: The creation of a "dirty bomb" in Ukraine is one of the favorite topics of kremlin propagandists. Back in March 2022, the Russian "Interfax", referring to some "informed source", stated that work on the creation of such weapons was carried out in the territory of the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

The weak point of these versions is that the "dirty bomb", that is, a charge of ordinary explosive substance placed in a container with radioactive material, is an absolutely useless weapon in war conditions. Unlike nuclear weapons, a "dirty bomb" does not have a particularly powerful destructive effect, and the effect of radioactive contamination of the area does not manifest itself immediately, that is, it does not provide any advantages on the battlefield. It is also impossible to present the explosion of the "Ukrainian dirty bomb" as evidence of russia's use of tactical nuclear weapons, because nuclear weapons leave a radiation trail, unlike a "dirty bomb."
The import of radioactive waste into Ukraine was first reported in 2023 by the French "independent journalist" Jules Vincent. At the same time, the fact-checkers of the Ukrainian publication StopFake drew attention to the fact that Vincent's account in X (former Twitter) was created shortly before this publication and was filled mainly with reposts, and the accounts subscribed to it are mostly bots, and no one knows Vincent himself in France. That is, a journalist with that name exists, but his photo in X does not look like this person's photo at all.

Vincent talked about some kind of agreement between the Ukrainian authorities and the son of George Soros, Oleksandr, on the allocation of 400 km² of agricultural land for the construction of a radioactive waste repository in the Ternopilskyi, Khmelnytskyi and Chernivetskyi regions to the companies Dow Chemical, DuPont, BASF, Evonik Industries, Vitol, and Sanofi.
Now the pro-russian media is pushing this topic with renewed vigor, even publishing a screenshot of Zelenskyi's decree and the memorandum signed by Yermak and Soros Jr. But in fact, Zelenskyi's decree No. 603/2023 (it is the propagandists who publish it as evidence) is called "On the awarding of state awards of Ukraine", and decree No. 107/2023, which Yermak allegedly refers to in the memorandum, is "On awarding O. Chornomorets the title of Hero of Ukraine". In addition, the forgery of "Zelenskyi's decree" contains a critical error in the name of the region - instead of "Ternopilska" it is written "Ternipilska". And after all, Ukrainian legislation does not allow the transfer of agricultural land to foreign companies at all, and the allocation of land plots is not within the competence of the President. So these documents are an ordinary forgery, and the fresh statement of the russian general is nothing more than a combination of two old fakes.
Nuclear blackmail is an integral part of russia's aggressive war against Ukraine. The aggressor is trying to present Ukraine itself as the source of danger. To do this, the russians are "looking" for evidence of the existence of the Ukrainian nuclear program, or of intentions to start it; scare the world with Ukrainian terrorists ready to detonate the so-called "dirty bomb" for the sake of provocation; accuse the Defense Forces of deliberately shelling the occupied Zaporizska NPP or russian nuclear facilities.

Also, the russians' information leaks on the topic of nuclear security have additional goals, namely:
- inhibition of the development of the entire Ukrainian nuclear energy sector;
- discrediting the American nuclear fuel supplier "Westinghouse", which is available on the global market to the russian "Rosatom";
- accusing the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian special services of preparing sabotage at the occupied Zaporizhia NPP, attacks on nuclear energy infrastructure facilities in russia and temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;
- justification of own threats to use nuclear weapons;
- conducting exercises with tactical nuclear weapons and their active "advertisement";
- decrease in the level of economic and military support of Ukraine by foreign partners.
We will remind you that Zaporizska NPP has been under russian occupation for two years and is constantly used by the kremlin for provocations against Ukraine. The russians took the station personnel hostage, turned the nuclear power plant into a military base, and placed weapons there. At the same time, accusations against the Armed Forces of Ukraine for shelling the station, or at least for preparing such shelling or other sabotage with the aim of provoking a nuclear disaster, are constantly thrown into the information space. This does not prevent kremlin propaganda from simultaneously generating calls for strikes to disable Ukrainian nuclear power plants, and then, as usual, blaming Ukraine.

On June 26, the Telegram channel "Digital Army of russia", which is one of the platforms for the coordination of information attacks, published a video of the statement of the British politician and conspiracist Andrew Bridgen about the Ukrainian "dirty bomb". Over the course of two days, his statement was shared in various languages ​​by more than 250 web resources, Telegram channels, and profiles in social networks targeting audiences not only in russia or Ukraine, but also in the USA, Great Britain, EU countries, in particular Germany. The traditional Telegram and X networks were used, as well as Pravda sites created to spread russian propaganda abroad.
In addition, the kremlin media actively uses the intimidation of a "Second Chernobyl" due to the transition of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, in particular the Khmelnytska NPP, from russian to American fuel. The term "Second Chernobyl" is actively used by russian propagandists and bot farms in the context of nuclear blackmail. The kremlin seeks to discredit and complicate Ukraine's course of strengthening capabilities and development of nuclear generation as much as possible. Currently, it is a critically important branch that provides electricity to both industry and domestic consumers.
At the same time, it is important for the kremlin regime to preserve and strengthen the position of "Rosatom", a state corporation that is complicit in armed aggression against Ukraine, on the international market.
According to the materials of Stopfake.org, Spravdi.ua, The Insider