美国官员断然否认俄罗斯一再向西方高级官员声称乌克兰正准备在乌克兰使用放射性“脏弹”，称这是虚假的，同时表示他们没有看到俄罗斯准备使用核武器的任何迹象。
一名美国官员告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，在本周末与五角大楼高级官员的电话中，俄罗斯军事领导人表示，所谓的乌克兰使用脏弹将成为冲突升级的理由。
周末，俄罗斯高级国防官员前所未有地打了一系列电话给美国、英国、法国和土耳其的高级国防官员，反复声称乌克兰可能准备使用脏弹。
脏弹是一种配有放射性物质的爆炸装置，旨在将辐射扩散到广阔的区域，而核武器是一种利用核裂变产生大规模原子爆炸或热核爆炸的装置。
“显然，我们担心的是俄罗斯人提出的这些指控，是他们，而不是我们，”美国国家安全委员会战略沟通协调员约翰·柯比(John Kirby)周一对记者表示。"是他们将此事公之于众。"
柯比说:“我们拒绝俄罗斯在应国防部长奥斯汀的要求打给他的电话中提出的错误指控，即乌克兰人计划使用脏弹。”。“我们拒绝这一指控。这不是真的。”
Ukrainian soldiers fire the Russian positions with the mortar in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Oct. 21, 2022.
利库斯/美联社
周日和周一，俄罗斯国防部长谢尔盖·绍伊古(Sergey Shoygu)和俄罗斯最高军事指挥官瓦列里·格拉西莫夫将军(general Valery lavrov)罕见地主动打电话给美国国防部长，据俄罗斯国防部称，他们提出了对乌克兰准备使用脏弹的担忧。
这些呼吁以及其他西方领导人的类似呼吁导致美国、英国和法国发表联合声明，拒绝将俄罗斯的主张作为升级乌克兰紧张局势的借口。
声明称，“我们的国家明确表示，我们都拒绝俄罗斯关于乌克兰准备在自己的领土上使用脏弹的明显虚假的指控。”“世界将会识破利用这一指控作为升级借口的任何企图。我们进一步拒绝俄罗斯升级的任何借口。”
一名美国官员说，在本周末与五角大楼高级官员的通话中，俄罗斯军事领导人将任何所谓乌克兰使用脏弹的行为描述为冲突升级的理由，推测是指使用核武器或生化武器。
然而，美国官员周一一再指出，他们没有看到任何迹象表明俄罗斯军方正在为使用核武器做准备。
柯比说:“我们仍然没有看到俄罗斯方面准备使用核武器的任何迹象，也没有看到目前可能使用脏弹的任何迹象。”。“我们正在尽可能密切地关注此事。”
柯比说:“我们过去已经看到，俄罗斯人有时会把他们计划要做的事情归咎于其他人。
与此同时，在莫斯科，俄罗斯政府继续表示，乌克兰正准备使用脏弹。
俄罗斯外交部发言人玛丽亚·扎哈罗娃声称，俄罗斯掌握了指控乌克兰在基辅和乌克兰中部准备脏弹的情报。
早些时候，俄罗斯国防部公布了一张地图，显示乌克兰正在Zaporizhzhia核电站准备一枚脏弹，该核电站几周来一直遭到炮击。
US says Russia's 'dirty bomb' claims are pretext for escalation in Ukraine
U.S. officials are flatly rejecting as false repeated Russian claims being made to senior western officials that Ukraine is preparing to use a radioactive "dirty bomb" in Ukraine, saying at the same time they are not seeing any indications that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons.
In this weekend's phone calls to top officials at the Pentagon, Russian military leaders indicated that the alleged Ukrainian use of a dirty bomb would be a justification for an escalation in the conflict, a U.S. official told ABC News.
Over the weekend, in an unprecedented series of phone calls to senior defense officials in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Turkey, senior Russian defense officials repeatedly claimed that Ukraine was possibly preparing to use a dirty bomb.
A dirty bomb is an explosive device paired with radioactive material that is intended to widely disperse radiation over a wide area while a nuclear weapon is a device that uses nuclear fission to produce a massive atomic or thermonuclear explosion.
"Obviously, we're concerned about these allegations that the Russians raised, them, not us," John Kirby, the National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications told reporters on Monday. "They're the ones that made a public issue of this."
"We reject the false allegation that the Russians made in the phone call that they placed at their request to (Defense) Secretary Austin, that the Ukrainians were planning to use a dirty bomb," said Kirby. "We just reject that allegation. It's just not true."
On Sunday and Monday, in a rare move, Russian defense minister Sergey Shoygu and Russia's top military commander Gen. Valery Gerasimov initiated phone calls to their American counterparts and, according to Russia's defense ministry, raised their concerns that Ukraine was preparing to use a dirty bomb.
Those calls, and similar calls to other western leaders, resulted in a joint statement by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France rejecting the Russian claim as a pretext to escalate tensions in Ukraine.
"Our countries made clear that we all reject Russia’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory," said the statement. "The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation. We further reject any pretext for escalation by Russia."
A U.S. official said that, in this weekend's calls to top officials at the Pentagon, Russian military leaders described any alleged Ukrainian use of a dirty bomb as a justification for an escalation in the conflict, presumably a reference to the use of nuclear or chemical-biological weapons.
However, U.S. officials pointed out repeatedly on Monday that they are not seeing any indications that Russia's military is making preparations for the use of nuclear weapons.
"We continue to see nothing in the way of preparations by the Russian side for the use of nuclear weapons and nothing with respect to the potential use for a dirty bomb at this point," said Kirby. "We're watching this as closely as we can."
"We have seen in the past that the Russians have, on occasion, blamed others for things that that they were planning to do," said Kirby.
Meanwhile in Moscow, the Russian government continued to say that Ukraine was preparing to use a dirty bomb.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed that Russia was in possession of information alleging that Ukraine was preparing dirty bombs at locations in Kyiv and central Ukraine.
Earlier, the Russian defense ministry had published a map indicating that Ukraine was preparing a dirty bomb at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that has seen constant shelling for weeks.
