Ukraine invited United Nations nuclear inspectors to investigate claims made by Russia’s defense minister that Kyiv is preparing to use a “dirty bomb” on its own territory with Western help. The United States, Britain and France rejected the allegations as “transparently false,” and Ukraine accused Russia of attempting to create a pretext for escalating the conflict.
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Monday also marks eight months since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, and the war grinds on. Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Monday also marks eight months since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, and the war grinds on. Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
1. Key developments
- Ukraine’s foreign minister invited the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, “to urgently send experts to peaceful facilities in Ukraine which Russia deceitfully claims to be developing a dirty bomb.” Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter Monday that Grossi agreed. A spokesperson for the IAEA confirmed the invitation to The Washington Post but did not say whether a delegation would be visiting Ukraine. It’s the latest development in a back-and-forth between Moscow, Kyiv and Western powers over Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s unfounded claim that Ukraine is planning to use so-called dirty bombs — explosive weapons designed to widely disperse radioactive material — in the war.
- “The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation,” the U.S., British, and French foreign ministers said in a joint statement. “We further reject any pretext for escalation by Russia,” the Western diplomats added. Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994 in return for a guarantee from Russia that it would not attack Ukraine.
- The Kremlin doubled down on Shoigu’s claims on Monday. During a news briefing, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the joint statement by Ukraine’s allies, “Their [Western] distrust does not mean that the threat of such a dirty bomb ceases to exist. The threat is obvious. This information was conveyed to the defense minister’s interlocutors. It’s up to them to believe it or not,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the Western joint statement during a news briefing.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of manufacturing false threats in his nightly speech. “If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this,” Zelensky said of Shoigu’s claims.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will represent the United States this week at a Crimea Platform summit, a forum hosted by Ukraine and focused on the peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014. She said she and other leaders will “deliver an unmistakable statement of our solidarity with Ukraine in its fight for freedom.”