Moscow has accused Ukraine of planning to use such a bomb – a conventional explosive device with radioactive material – and said institutes linked to the nuclear industry were involved in the preparations, without providing evidence. The Ukrainian government denies the charge. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, welcomed the conclusion, calling it “quite obvious” in his latest national address. “We invited the IAEA to check, we gave them full freedom of action at the relevant facilities and we have clear and irrefutable evidence that no one in Ukraine has built or is building dirty bombs,” he said. “The only thing that is dirty in our region now are the heads of those in Moscow who, unfortunately, have taken control of the Russian state and are terrorizing Ukraine and the whole world.” Some Ukrainian and Western officials have accused Moscow of making the claim to cover itself for detonating its own dirty bomb and pinning the blame on Kyiv. The US has dismissed Russia’s accusations as “manifestly false”. Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken noted that “the world would oppose any attempt by Russia to use this claim as a pretext for escalation.” In a statement released late Thursday, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said: “Over the past few days, inspectors have been able to carry out all the activities the IAEA had planned to conduct and were given unhindered access to the sites. “Based on the assessment of the results available to date and the information provided by Ukraine, the agency found no evidence of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at the sites.” The IAEA said in October it would inspect two sites in Ukraine at Kiev’s request. On Monday it said those inspections had begun, and on Thursday it said they had been completed at three sites rather than two, all of which had been reported by Russia. The IAEA named the sites as the Nuclear Research Institute in Kyiv, the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Kody and the Production Association Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant in Dnipro. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said an assessment of the results “showed no signs of undeclared nuclear activities and materials” and environmental samples taken at the sites would be sent for laboratory analysis with results reported “as soon as possible”. “.
