MOSCOW, November 5. /TASS/. Ukraine is capable of staging a provocation involving nuclear fuel against the Russian population, Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, said.

"Given that Ukraine primarily uses and stores Russian-made nuclear fuel, the Kiev regime could stage a provocation aimed at discrediting Russian authorities, spreading panic, destabilizing the situation, and thus undermining the objectives of the special military operation," Kirillov pointed out.

He also stressed that prior to the special military operation, the United States had stated that radiological weapons were not classified as weapons of mass destruction. However, in 2023, after Russia first expressed concerns that Ukraine might create a "dirty bomb" and detonate it to falsely blame Russia, Washington’s position shifted. As a result, at the US’s initiative, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the use of radiological weapons.

Kirillov emphasized that "given the existing international network of radiation monitoring systems, along with the capabilities of IAEA-accredited radiochemical laboratories that can reliably determine the nature of the detonated device and its isotopic composition, it would be impossible to carry out such a provocation covertly."