MOSCOW: Russia mustn’t escalate the conflict in Ukraine with false claims that Kyiv is planning to unleash a so- called “dirty lemon”, the head of Nato has advised.
Jens Stoltenberg counted in following Moscow’s repeated allegations that Ukraine could emplace such a armament, sparking fears Russia could use one and condemn Kyiv.
The head of the US- led military alliance said he’d spoken with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace “about Russia’s false claim that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty lemon on its own home.”
“Nato Abettors reject this allegation. Russia mustn’t use it as a rationale for escalation. We remain loyal in our support for Ukraine,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Kremlin has contended that Ukraine is in the “ final stages ” of developing a dirty lemon. But a elderly military functionary said the United States has no suggestion Russia has decided to use nuclear, chemical or natural munitions in Ukraine.
“The Ukrainians aren’t erecting a dirty lemon, nor do we’ve suggestions that the Russians have made a decision to employ nuclear, chem, memoir” munitions, the US functionary told intelligencers on condition of obscurity.
The head of the Russian army Valery Gerasimov repeated Moscow’s claims in a telephone call with his US counterpart before on Monday, the defence ministry said.
The call was the rearmost in a string of exchanges between Russian defence officers and counterparts from Nato countries, during which Moscow said, without furnishing substantiation, that Kyiv was planning to emplace the armament.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday that it had prepared its forces to work in conditions of radioactive impurity, after Moscow indicted Ukraine of planning to crump a “ dirty lemon ” — commodity Kyiv has explosively denied.
After weeks of rising transnational pressure following pitfalls by President Vladimir Putin to defend Russia’s “territorial integrity” with nuclear munitions, it was the first concrete statement from Moscow of a change in its forces’ state of preparedness.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Western defence ministers on Sunday that Moscow believed Ukraine was preparing to crump such a lemon — a device using conventional snares packed with radioactive material to spread impurity over a wide area.
The head of Russia’s nuclear, natural and chemical protection colors, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, told a media briefing on Monday the end of such an attack would be to condemn the performing radioactive impurity on Russia by criminating it of crumping a low- grade nuclear armament.
Ukraine wanted to paint Russia as a “nuclear terrorist”, he said. “The end of the provocation would be to charge Russia of using a armament of mass destruction in the Ukrainian military theatre and by that means to launch a importantanti-Russian crusade in the world, aimed at undermining trust in Moscow.”
Kirillov concluded “Work has been organised by the ministry of defence to fight possible provocations from the Ukrainian side forces and coffers have been put in readiness to perform tasks in conditions of radioactive impurity.”
The Russian defence ministry said military Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov had spoken to his US and British counterparts by phone on Monday to bandy the possibility that Ukraine could use a “dirty lemon”.
Since Russia’s allegations and thinly veiled trouble of implicit nuclear escalation, both Kyiv and its abettors have fiercely rejected the claim.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the head of the United Nations nuclear agency(IAEA), Rafael Grossi, accepted his request to “urgently shoot experts to peaceful installations in Ukraine, which Russia deceitfully claims to be developing a dirty lemon.” The United Kingdom, the United States and France issued a common statement dismissing the claim before on Monday.
“Our countries made clear that we all reject Russia’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty lemon on its own home,” according to the statement.
With the help of Western- supplied heavy munitions, Ukraine has managed to claw back swathes of its home from Russia in the east and south, while its power grid has been pummelled ahead of downtime.
