Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu Raised the ghost of Radiological warfare on Sunday during talks with Western defense chiefs when he warned that Ukraine was preparing to use a “dirty bomb”.

What happened: Shoigu’s statements were dismissed by US officials, who said they were “manifestly false” and a subterfuge that would allow Russia to launch a similar attack. reported The hill.

US Secretary of State Anton Blinken dismissed Shoigu’s claims, saying: “The world would see through any attempt by Russia to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation,” according to one reading of the appeal.

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Why it matters: Shoigu’s call to the British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace was referring to Ukraine, which the Russian official said is planning “measures backed by Western countries, including Britain, to escalate the conflict in Ukraine.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Shoigu of running a “phone merry-go-round” to spread allegations about the “so-called ‘dirty’ nuclear bomb”.

The Pentagon said last week that the United States is fully prepared to engage with Russia on a nuclear scenario.

The comments came after the Russian President Wladimir Putin said the US and its allies had engaged in “nuclear blackmail” against Russia. The Russian leader said the country would use “all the means at its disposal” to do so protect their territorial integrity.

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