Without providing any evidence whatsoever for the stated accusations, Moscow accused on Sunday Kyiv of planning to stage a ‘false flag’ nuclear incident on its own territory to pin the blame on Russia ahead of the key meeting in the United Nations.
Per Russia’s defense ministry’s statement on Sunday, an unnamed European country and Kyiv are preparing a large-scale “provocation” aimed at accusing Russian troops, and were allegedly transporting radioactive substances to Ukraine.
According to Moscow, their intention is to frame Russian troops for carrying out indiscriminate strikes on hazardous radioactive facilities in Ukraine and to pin the blame on them for the potential leakage of radioactive substances and contamination of the surrounding area afterward.
Since it invaded Ukraine nearly a year ago, Russia has repeatedly accused Kyiv of planning “false flag” operations with non-conventional weapons – using biological or radioactive materials- on its territory.
Apart from the fact that no such attack has materialized, Kyiv not only dismissed such accusations as cynical disinformation attempts but has also accused Moscow of planning nuclear incidents itself in a bid to pin the blame on Kyiv and its troops.
Moscow’s allegations come in light of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky’s claims on Sunday that Kyiv military is inflicting extraordinarily heavy losses on Russian forces near Vuhledar, a town in the eastern Donbas region, where fighting has been focused for months.
Underscoring that the situation in the region is very complicated, Zelenskyy pointed out that the more losses Russia suffers in Donbas – in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Marinka, Kreminna – the faster will Kyiv be able to end this war with victory, noting that Ukraine is moving towards its goals.
It also comes on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that Ukrainian officials used for lobbying over the weekend during the talks that included Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, among other Kyiv officials, and Democrats and Republicans from the US Senate and House of Representatives.
Ukrainians reportedly urged Washington officials to pressure the Biden administration into sending F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv although President Biden said ‘no’ last month when asked if he would approve Ukraine’s request for F-16s.
