Global Courant
(Reuters) – One of Russia’s top spymasters said on Monday he hoped the UN and European Union nuclear watchdog would investigate Ukrainian nuclear activities which he said could indicate Kiev was working on a “dirty bomb”.
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency SVR, has provided no documented evidence to support his claims.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kiev has in the past said it takes its responsibility for nuclear energy very seriously, while accusing Russia of recklessness when it comes to its control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
Naryshkin said in a statement that his agency had information that a batch of “spent fuel” had been secretly shipped from the Rivne nuclear power plant in western Ukraine for disposal at a Chernobyl spent fuel storage facility.
He said the action, which Reuters could not independently verify, was suspicious and could only be explained by Kiev planning to make a “dirty bomb” combining radioactive material with conventional explosives.
Russia has previously accused Ukraine, without providing any evidence, of planning to use such a “dirty bomb” amid fears on both sides that fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russian troops a few days after the invasion of Ukraine early last year in what Moscow calls its “special military operation” could lead to disaster.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Andrew Osborn and Kevin Liffey)
