MOSCOW, October 24. /TASS/. Moscow will raise the issue of Kiev's preparation of a dirty bomb provocation in international forums, including the UN, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday at a news conference following talks with Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Hissein Brahim Taha.
"We have also taken the necessary steps to raise this issue in international structures, first of all in the UN in New York, and today our representatives will do this hoping for an informed and professional discussion of the problems that we will touch upon," he said, answering a question from TASS.
The Russian top diplomat stressed that the Russian side had specific information about Ukrainian scientific institutions that possessed technologies capable of creating a dirty bomb. "We have information, which we have double-checked through the appropriate channels, that this is not a groundless suspicion, that there are serious reasons to believe that such things could be planned. Sergey Shoigu [Russian Defense Minister] has agreed with some of his interlocutors to hold additional consultations on this topic at a professional level," Lavrov said.
According to him, Moscow is not surprised by the West’s media reaction to Kiev's possible use of a dirty bomb. "It goes in line with the unconditional support that the West gives to its protege [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky, indulging him in any Russophobic actions not only in the form of statements, but also in the form of shelling of civilian objects, killing civilians and much more," the diplomat noted.
Russian Defense Minister Sergeiy Shoigu on Sunday held telephone conversations with his counterparts: the UK’s Ben Wallace, France’s Sebastien Lecornu and Turkey’s Hulusi Akar. Shoigu conveyed to his colleagues concerns about Ukraine’s possible use of a dirty bomb. In addition, Shoigu spoke over the telephone with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin on Friday and Sunday. The Pentagon released a statement from the foreign ministries of the UK, the US and France saying that these countries did not consider Russian warnings about Kiev's possible use of a so-called dirty bomb to be justified.