Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Shoigu doubly by phone, erstwhile connected Friday and again connected Sunday. In the astir caller call, Austin “rejected immoderate pretext for Russian escalation,” according to a readout from Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy echoed the sentiment, saying that Russia is the “source of everything soiled that tin beryllium imagined successful this war.”
The Russian MoD doubled down connected the allegations connected Monday, posting a video of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, caput of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, to Telegram. In the video, Kirillov briefed that Kyiv is readying a false-flag cognition that would impact launching a soiled weaponry oregon low-power atomic warhead connected its ain soil.
“The detonation of a radiological explosive instrumentality volition inevitably pb to radioactive contamination of the country implicit an country of up to respective 1000 quadrate meters,” Kirillov said astatine a briefing connected threats to radiation safety, according to Russian media.
Another MoD Telegram station alleged without grounds that 2 organizations successful Ukraine had been “directly ordered” to make the alleged soiled bomb, a limb improvised from radioactive atomic discarded worldly and accepted explosives.
Russian forces activated a specialized portion to support against a imaginable chemical, biologic oregon atomic weapons attack, the MoD posted connected Telegram.
“The Ministry of Defence has arranged for countering imaginable provocations of Ukraine: the means and forces are alerted to run amid radioactive contamination,” according to the message.
The activation is “the benignant of happening they would bash pending imminent usage of [weapons of wide destruction,” Samuel Charap of the RAND Corp. said.
Statements from the MoD are “concerning,” said a U.S. elder medication official, who similar others quoted for this communicative agreed to talk connected information of anonymity successful bid to sermon interior reactions.
The back-and-forth comes arsenic Ukraine prepares for a caller violative to instrumentality backmost the confederate metropolis of Kherson, amid reports that Russia is mounting conditions to retreat from the strategical city.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials expect to spot a shipment of Iranian surface-to-surface missiles to Russia for usage successful Ukraine “soon,” according to a elder Defense Department official.
Alexander Ward contributed to this report.
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