No evidence seen for Moscow’s ‘dirty bomb’ claim, says UN agency

The UN’s nuclear agency says its inspections in Ukraine found no evidence of radioactive “dirty bomb” activity alleged by Russia.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday that the inspections requested by the Ukrainian government “did not find any indications of undeclared nuclear activities and materials”.

The agency said its experts carried out inspections in three locations in Ukraine and were given unfettered access to the sites.

“Based on the evaluation of the results available to date and the information provided by Ukraine, the agency did not find any indications of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at the locations,” it said in a statement.

Top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have made repeated unfounded claims that Ukraine planned to detonate a bomb that scatters radioactive waste in a false flag operation it would try to pin on Moscow.

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, claimed in a letter to the UN Security Council members last week that Ukraine’s nuclear research facility and mining company “received direct orders from (President Volodymyr) Zelensky’s regime to develop such a dirty bomb”.

Western nations have called Moscow’s repeated claim “transparently false”.

Ukrainian authorities dismissed it as an attempt to distract attention from alleged Russian plans to detonate a dirty bomb as a way to justify an escalation of hostilities.