On May 13, 2023, a warehouse was destroyed by Russia in western Ukraine. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev claimed that this attack released a radioactive plume that was moving towards Europe. How did the Kremlin concoct a lie using a truth to spread this frightening rumor?
After the destruction of Khmelnitsky in western Ukraine on May 13, Russia communicated the event to paint a rather alarming picture of the situation that overwhelms the population UNITED STATES. If the camp was indeed destroyed, the rest of the story is fiction that has nonetheless been widely shared on social media, with Twitter topping the list.
warehouse destroyed
On May 13, an ammunition depot was destroyed. This is the Khmelnitsky warehouse in the west of the country, in an area particularly hard hit by the fighting, recalls TF1 Info. On that day, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council said: Nikolai Patrushev, denounces an attack by the United States and proclaims that this bombardment produced a radioactive cloud.
The US also “helped” Ukraine. They pressurized their satellites and fed them depleted uranium. Their destruction caused the radioactive cloud to move toward Western Europe. And in Poland, an increase in radiation has already been registered.
When he mentions the destruction in Kiev, the warehouse is much further west. It was a Russian drone, not an American bomb, that devastated the crime scene. The explosion is very powerful, causes a stir, and the images are used to illustrate information that Russia chooses to falsify. This is thanks to the Satellite Data Watch tool planet that the event has been confirmed.
Radioactivity?
These images do not allow any statement as to whether the bombs contained depleted uranium and thus whether and to what extent the zone is radioactive. This radioactive element was actually sent to Ukraine to make missiles more efficient, specifically to penetrate tank armor. London, in particular, sent some to Kiev in addition to the promised Challenger tanks.
Our colleagues point out that Russia also has such bombs, but such use would not create such a dangerous cloud as Moscow claims. The interview of our colleague, researcher and chemical weapons specialist Olivier Lepick, explains the nuances between the use of depleted uranium weapons and radioactive risk.
As the name suggests, depleted uranium is less radioactive than natural uranium. It is a toxic substance but very little radioactive. The toxicity of depleted uranium, which can actually pose human health problems, should not be confused with radioactivity. Those are two different things.
The Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD) points out that an increase in radioactivity has indeed been observed in the region. This statement dates from before the explosion and represents a connection between the two events.