MOSCOW —
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday surveyed drills carried out by
his nuclear-capable forces as Moscow pressed claims to India and China that
Ukraine was developing a “dirty bomb”.
اضافة اعلان
The drills are the
latest in a series of escalatory comments from Moscow and Putin — who observed
the drills from a control room — that the eight-month conflict in Ukraine could
turn nuclear.
“Under the
leadership of ... Vladimir Putin, a training session was held with ground, sea,
and air strategic deterrence forces, during which practical launches of
ballistic and cruise missiles took place,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Russian state-run
media ran footage of a submarine crew preparing the launch of a Sineva
ballistic missile from the Barents Sea in the Arctic.
The drills also
included launching test missiles from the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian
Far East.
Footage of the
drills across state media came after Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu
pressed ahead with telephone calls to his counterparts globally, over concern
that Ukraine was developing a “dirty bomb”.
Shoigu, who has
made these claims in recent days to counterparts from
NATO countries,
reiterated them to Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe on Wednesday.
Shoigu also voiced
the same “concerns” in a phone with India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh
earlier on Wednesday, Moscow said.
Ukraine has
dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and “dangerous,” suggesting the claims
could be cover for Russia’s own plans on the battlefield, as have its western
allies, including Britain, France and the United States.
A dirty bomb is a
conventional bomb laced with radioactive, biological or chemical materials
which are disseminated in an explosion.
Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier Wednesday that Russia had information
pertaining to the “existing threat” of Ukraine using a “dirty bomb” and that
Kyiv was “preparing for such a terrorist act of sabotage”.
He added: “We will
continue vigorously bringing our point of view to the world community to
encourage them to take active steps to prevent such irresponsible behavior.”
Nuclear rhetoric
from Russia began building in September, when Moscow said it was annexing four
regions of Ukraine over which its forces have partial control. Putin warned
Russia could use nuclear weapons to defend them.
One of those
regions is Kherson, in southern Ukraine near Moscow-annexed Crimea, where Kyiv
has been clawing back territory since a counter-offensive it announced at the
end of the summer.
Russian-backed
authorities in recent days urged residents to flee what they say is an oncoming
onslaught. They claimed to have turned the city of Kherson into a “fortress”,
vowing to defend it at all costs.
A Moscow-appointed
official in the region, Vladimir Saldo, said Wednesday that at least 70,000
people have left their homes within the last week.
Ukraine’s capture
of the Kherson region would give Kyiv back important access to the
Sea of Azov.
It would also cut off Moscow’s land bridge to Russian-annexed Crimea.
Saldo banned entry
to the right bank area of the region for a period of seven days “due to the
tense situation on the contact line”, according to a statement on his social
media on Wednesday.
Russia’s offensive
to capture Ukrainian territory spurred a wave of international solidarity with
Kyiv, including hundreds of foreigners who volunteered to help fend off Russian
advances.
Kyiv said Wednesday that Russia had returned the remains of
US citizen Joshua Alan Jones, who was killed fighting Moscow’s forces in
August, along with 10 Ukrainian servicemen in a prisoner swap.
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