Russia is again claiming that Ukraine will use a nuclear bomb or a “dirty bomb” on its own territory as a “provocation.” But Ukraine has neither nuclear bombs nor “dirty bombs.”
included footage from a Russian TV show and featured text saying,"Today on Russian TV. Ukraine has a nuclear bomb primed in Mykolaiv which it will detonate and then blame on Russia so that the US has a justification for getting directly involved in the war and launching missiles on Russia."
The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. by BBC Monitoring journalist Francis Scarr, who summarized in English what was said in Russian in the TV clip. A BBC spokesperson said Scarr"reports on the output of Russian TV" and that the tweet"reported a statement made on Russian state-controlled TV, and attributed the statement to that source." The spokesperson noted that"BBC Monitoring’s activities include investigating and exposing disinformation."
Contrary to Russia’s repeated claims, Ukraine has neither a nuclear bomb nor a"dirty bomb," according to experts and watchdogs. The country used to have Soviet-era nuclear weapons but returned them to Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed. Ukraine also dismantled or destroyed its nuclear missiles and silos.
The Soviet military kept nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory during the Cold War, according to a June 2022