Putin Camp Claims Ukraine Assembled Nuclear Weapons In Chernobyl As Russia Flexes Arsenal

As fighting between invading Russian forces and defending Ukrainian armies continues on for the third week of the conflict, Russia claimed, without much evidence, on Sunday, March 6, that they have caught Ukraine building a "dirty" nuclear bomb.

Russia claims that Ukraine had been developing a “plutonium-based dirty bomb nuclear weapon” at the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, though they have offered no evidence towards the claim that they have pushed forward, according to the Daily Beast.

A “representative of a competent body” in Russia reportedly said that Ukraine had been attempting to create nuclear weapons of its own in the abandoned nuclear power plant, with Putin claiming that the assembly was tantamount to preparation to attack Russia, Reuters reported.

Ukrainian government officials have denied the existence of a program to create a dirty nuclear bomb in Chernobyl. Many analysts in the West have denounced the claim as a pretext towards Russia’s future use of its own nuclear arsenal against Ukraine.

“I think it's rhetoric and brinkmanship,” British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said. “He’s got a track record as long as anyone’s arm of misinformation and propaganda... This is a distraction from what the real issues are at hand—which is that it’s an illegal invasion and it is not going according to plan.”

As Russian forces continue to move forward into Ukraine, the humanitarian and refugee crisis happening in the country during the war has escalated even further as agreed-upon ceasefires have been ignored in favor of more bombings against civilian spaces.

“We’ve seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians, which would constitute a war crime,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. “We’ve seen very credible reports about the use of certain weapons.”

Over 1.2 million Ukrainians have fled the country due to the fighting, with over 360 civilian deaths currently being accounted for during the fighting. Water and electricity in many cities have reportedly been cut off by Russian forces, causing an increasing amount of bodies to pile up on the streets.

“The enemy continues to shell all quarters in Bucha mercilessly: every day is the struggle for survival,” the city council in Kyiv said on Sunday. “There is no electricity, heat, communication, internet. It is impossible to deliver humanitarian aid: the community is under siege.”