Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu conducted a series of calls with the Defense Ministers of Turkey, France, the U.K. and the U.S. today. On the U.K. call, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated, according to TASS: “On October 23, 2022, telephone conversations were held between the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General of the Army S.K. Shoigu, and British Defense [Secretary] B. Wallace. The situation in Ukraine was discussed.” TASS described that Shoigu “conveyed to his British colleague concern about the possibility of provocations by Kyiv with the use of a dirty bomb.” A dirty bomb is normally a conventional bomb, rigged with nuclear material, so as to spread radiation upon explosion.
Earlier on Oct. 23, Shoigu held similar telephone conversations with French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar; and later he did the same with the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. With Lecornu, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the two spoke on “the situation in Ukraine, which is consistently veering towards further uncontrolled escalation.”
Britain’s Defense Ministry, avoiding any mention of dirty bombs, said that Secretary Wallace “refuted” claims that Western countries sought to help Ukraine escalate the conflict and “cautioned that such allegations should not be used as a pretext for greater escalation.” The Pentagon said that Austin told Shoigu that he “rejected any pretext for Russian escalation” in Ukraine.
