On August 15, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern about another surge in Russian propaganda regarding alleged plans by Ukraine to use “dirty bombs” or attack nuclear power plants.
A message appeared on the official Facebook page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that these statements are false. “We officially refute these false reports. Ukraine has neither the intention nor the ability to carry out such actions. Russia must stop spreading dangerous lies,” the ministry emphasized.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, also expressed his opinion on the situation. He suggested that Russia could be preparing a nuclear provocation. “They failed to accuse us of terrorism and the attack on the Kursk nuclear power plant, so now they are inventing a ‘dirty bomb’ and our possible provocation. This indicates that Russia could be preparing a terrorist attack,” Kovalenko wrote.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stressed that the country remains a member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). “We do not have any ‘dirty bombs’ and do not plan to purchase them. When Russia first spread these false accusations in 2022, we invited an IAEA mission, which completely refuted this lie. Nothing has changed since then,” assured Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi.
Russian propaganda media previously claimed that Ukraine was allegedly preparing a strike with a “dirty nuclear bomb” on the Zaporizhia and Kursk nuclear power plants. They also claimed that the strike was “supervised by Western intelligence services” and that “numerous Western journalists had arrived in Sumy and Zaporizhia” in connection with the preparation of the attack. The propagandists added that the “dirty warheads” were already deployed in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
It is noted that these statements are part of Russia's information campaign aimed at disinformation and creating an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. The Ukrainian side called on the international community to be attentive to such fake news and to continue to maintain transparency and objectivity in covering events.
