Zelensky asks to "react harshly" to Russia's "false statements" about a "dirty bomb"

Blinken has expressed rejection of Shoigu's "clearly false accusations" to his Ukrainian counterpart

MADRID, 24 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for "the world to react as harshly as possible" to "stories about the so-called 'dirty' nuclear bomb."

"I think that now the world must react in the harshest way possible," Zelensky considered in the daily video in which he addresses the Ukrainian nation, after indicating that Russia is "the origin of everything dirty that can be imagined in this war."

Zelensky made these statements after the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, expressed this Sunday in a round of talks with his counterparts from France, Turkey and the United Kingdom his concern about the possibility that kyiv will use a "dirty bomb"

The Ukrainian president has listed a series of actions carried out by Russian troops in order to show that Moscow is the one who initiates the escalation of the war.

"It was Russia that blackmailed with the radiation disaster at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. This is the trajectory of Russian missiles passing over Ukrainian nuclear facilities," he said.

In this line, he has indicated that the Russian troops are the ones who are blackmailing with the detonation of the Kajovka dam. "It is Russia that uses phosphorus munitions, prohibited anti-personnel mines and the whole range of weapons against civilian infrastructure," he added.

Thus, he has distanced himself from the accusations coming from the Kremlin. "Wherever Russia has brought death and degradation, we are restoring normal life. Where Ukraine is, life is never destroyed, but where Russia comes it leaves mass graves, torture chambers and destroyed cities, mined land, destroyed infrastructure and disasters," has lamented.

"Ukraine is always about recovery, about life. There is only one subject who can use nuclear weapons in this part of Europe, and this subject is the one who ordered Shoigu to call," Zelensky criticized.

However, the Ukrainian leader has again asked for the support of the allies in order to end the war and "any possible Russian threat".

"Even Russia's own threat of nuclear weapons, and even more so against our country, which has given up its nuclear arsenal under security promises from the major nuclear powers, is cause for both sanctions and further strengthening of support for Ukraine. ", has settled.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, spoke this Sunday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dimitro Kuleba, to reaffirm Washington's support for kyiv, as well as to express the rejection of Shoigu's "clearly false accusations".

"Secretary Blinken has expressed to Kuleba that the United States rejects Russian Defense Minister Shoigu's patently false accusations that Ukraine is preparing to use a 'dirty bomb' on its own turf," Department spokesman Ned Price, in a statement.

Furthermore, Blinken has argued that the world would "see through any attempts by Russia" to use this accusation as a pretext for escalation.

Blinken and Kuleba have discussed, in turn, the international commitment to continue helping kyiv with humanitarian assistance "for as long as necessary", because the "responsibility" lies with Russia. They also noted "continued efforts to more broadly sanction (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's war."

The US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, announced this Sunday that he has spoken with his Russian counterpart to discuss the follow-up to the war in Ukraine.

"Secretary Austin rejected any pretext for Russian escalation and reaffirmed the value of continued communication in the midst of Russia's illegal and unjustified war against Ukraine," Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said.