Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu yesterday alerted his counterparts in France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Turkey of the possibility that Ukraine, as a provocative move, will drop a dirty bomb (conventional explosive with radioactive elements) on its own territory and blame Russia. Shoigu denounced that Ukraine has "a tendency to uncontrollable escalation"
According to a statement issued in Paris, Shoigú's call to his French counterpart, Sébastien Lecornu, was made at the initiative of the former. Lecornu reminded Shoigú that "France rejects all forms of escalation, especially nuclear", while "calling on Russia to end its war of aggression against Ukraine" and to do everything necessary for "de-escalation". The French minister insisted that Paris wants to help a "peaceful resolution of the conflict, alongside its allies."
Shoigú also spoke yesterday with those responsible for British Defense, Ben Wallace; the Turk, Hulusi Akar, and the American, Lloyd Austin. It is the second time in three days that the Russian minister has contacted the Pentagon chief.
This very intense communication at the highest level of defense between Moscow and four capitals of key NATO countries comes at a very sensitive moment when there are doubts about the real Russian intentions in Kherson, the southern city where the Russian occupiers are evacuating to the civilian population. In an interview published yesterday by the daily Le Parisien, Ukraine's ambassador in Paris, Vadim Omelchenko, said that it could not be excluded that Russia would attack Kherson with a tactical nuclear weapon the moment Ukrainian troops entered the city. The ambassador denounced the Russian tactic of using human shields to cover their withdrawal from Kherson and the additional fear that the Kajovka dam would be destroyed to flood the entire region.
