Fact Check: Russia's Claim That Photo Shows 'Dirty Bomb' in Ukraine

Russia has continued to make unfounded accusations and stoke fears this week that Ukraine is planning to use a "dirty bomb," a device that combines conventional explosives and radioactive materials that are then dispersed to cause harm to the public.

The allegations, shared by Russian officials in phone calls with Western counterparts, have been dismissed as false by the U.S. and sit on the heels of Russia's own veiled nuclear threats.

However, a tweet sent by the Russian Ministry of Defence earlier this week included a graphic littered with photos of power plants and nuclear material, purportedly presenting first "evidence" to Russia's baseless claims.

The Claim

A tweet, posted on October 24, 2022, from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that according to the Russian Defence Ministry "two organisations of Ukraine have been ❗ directly ordered to create the so-called #dirtybomb. The works are at their concluding stage."

The tweet includes a graphic with photos of a power plant and a "waste storage site". One of the photos is titled "Development of 'dirty bomb'".

The Facts

Ukraine does not possess nuclear weapons, after voluntarily surrendering the world's third-largest stockpile in the 1990s in exchange for security and sovereignty guarantees, as part of the Budapest Memorandum signed, among others, by the U.S. and Russia.

Ukrainian and U.S. officials have vehemently rejected the claim that Ukraine is developing a dirty bomb. U.S. National Security Council Strategic Communications Co-Ordinator John Kirby told reporters earlier this week that "there is nothing to the Russian allegation".

"We continue to see nothing in the way of preparations by the Russian side for the use of nuclear weapons," he said, "and nothing with respect to the potential use of a dirty bomb at this point."

While the Russian government has continued its campaign to "sell" its allies on this claim, we can say the images in the graphic shared by the Russian Ministry of Defence, are not related to the creation of a "dirty bomb."

They are, in fact, made up of a combination of photos taken from a variety of sources that predate the tweet by more than a decade.

A tweet by the Slovenian Government confirmed that part of the image was taken from a 2010 presentation by the Agency for Radwaste Management, a non-profit organisation of the Slovenian government.

Referring to the bags marked with nuclear waste symbols, the Slovenian government stated "It was used for professional presentations for the general and interested public as an explanatory material. The photo shows smoke detectors that are subject to general use."

The same photo has appeared elsewhere before, including in a 2014 presentation by the Center for Eco-Toxicological Research in Montenegro and a story published in 2016 with the headline "Mexican authorities find stolen truck with radioactive materials," among several other examples of its reuse.

As highlighted by journalist Benjamin Strick, a number of other images are photos taken from Russian and Siberian research facilities.

Bellingcat founder Elliot Higgins debunked several other graphics, shared by Russian media as proof of dirty bomb development in Ukraine, some of which contained images taken from Russian propaganda film shoots.

In any case, the material in the photo is not related to or evidence of creation of a dirty bomb in Ukraine. To date Russia has failed to present any convincing evidence to support its narrative.

Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment.

The Ruling

Misleading Material.

The images in the graphic, shared by the Russian Ministry of Defence, are not of a Ukrainian dirty bomb facility or evidence of the creation of a dirty bomb.

Some are photos of Russian and Siberian research facilities. Another, according to the Slovenian government, is from a 2010 Radioactive Waste Management presentation by a Slovenian non-profit. One of the images has been used several times over on different websites since 2010.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team