UN watchdog to inspect 2 Ukraine sites over Russia’s ‘dirty bomb’ claims

“Inspections are on the way,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told reporters after a closed-door meeting with members of the UN Security Council.

“In this case, there has been a very clear indication from a very high official of the Russian Federation about work that, clandestine work, in fact, to divert nuclear material,” he added.

The move to send inspectors follows statement by a senior Russian officer that institutes in Ukraine linked to the nuclear industry were engaged in preparations to produce such a bomb. "Dirty bombs" are laced with nuclear material.

Russia's state news agency RIA had earlier identified what it said were the two sites involved in the operation – the Eastern Mineral Enrichment Plant in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv.

Grossi said the inspectors would reach a conclusion on the accusations within “days” of undertaking their work.

Earlier on Thursday, the United States and allies slammed Russia for wasting the UN Security Council’s time and spreading conspiracy theories by raising its accusation that the United States has a "military biological program" in Ukraine.

Russia has raised at least twice at the Security Council the issue of a biological weapons program in Ukraine. The United States and Ukraine have said they do not have biological weapons programs.

Russia is now pushing for a formal inquiry. It has drafted a Security Council resolution to set up a commission, comprising all 15 council members, to investigate its claims. Such a move is possible – but has never been invoked – under the Biological Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1975.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN said all of its accusations regarding possible biological or radiological weapons in Ukraine should be taken seriously.

“I don't think that what we had today, this is a waste of time, raising an issue of potential and radiological contamination due to the use of, say, a dirty bomb is not a waste of time. This is a serious issue which should be dealt with seriously,” Vasily Alekseyevich Nebenzya told reporters.

UN disarmament officials have long said they are not aware of any biological weapons programs in Ukraine

Reuters