Sunday, after months of no contact, Russian Defense Minister Sergei “The Plywood Marshal” Shoigu reached out to several of his Western counterparts to inform them of a nefarious scheme in the works by the Zelensky government. According to Shoigu, Kiev planned to detonate a “dirty bomb” as a “false flag” operation. They would then blame the Russians for detonating the bomb. Russia would, of course, have the right to retaliate in kind with a (my opinion) low-yield nuclear strike on a target in Ukraine.

Russia’s defense ministry said Shoigu voiced concern about “possible Ukrainian provocations involving a ‘dirty bomb,’” a device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste. It doesn’t have the devastating effect of a nuclear explosion, but could expose broad areas to radioactive contamination.

Russian authorities repeatedly have made allegations that Ukraine could detonate a dirty bomb in a false flag attack and blame it on Moscow. Ukrainian authorities, in turn, have accused the Kremlin of hatching such a plan.

According to Shoigu, the bomb would be detonated near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which the Russian Army currently occupies.

Oddly enough, the Russians used the same briefing material for foreign reporters on this “dirty bomb” threat that they used in August when they claimed the ZNPP could go Chornobyl as a result of Ukrainian attacks.

The "dirty bomb" map being posted today from the Russian MoD is literally the EXACT same one that was released on August 18th in regards to the potential false flag on Zaporizhzhia NPP https://t.co/5h8T2G65zd pic.twitter.com/Qtjusmmyvc

— Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) October 24, 2022

Remember that it was only last week that Russian media claimed the Ukrainians had a nuclear bomb primed to explode in their own territory.

Today on Russian TV:

Ukraine has a nuclear bomb primed in Mykolaiv which it will detonate and then blame on Russia so that the US has a justification for getting directly involved in the war and launching missiles on Russia

Got all of that? 🤪 pic.twitter.com/Zfvln18j6P

— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) October 19, 2022

The “warning” also sounded ominously familiar.

The Intercept, April 2018 — Russia Says It Has “Irrefutable Evidence” U.K. Staged Chemical Attack in Syria. Let’s See It.

RT, June 2018 — US Special Forces helping FSA plot chemical attack to trigger strikes on Syria forces – Russian MoD

RT, August 2018 — ‘Foreign specialists’ may stage chemical attack in Syria in 2 days to frame Assad – Russian MoD

TASS, January 2020 — Terrorists plan to stage chemical attack in northern Syria — agency (The “agency” referenced is the Syrain news agency, not some international body.)

Sputnik, September 2020 — Militants Planning to Stage Chemical Weapon Attacks in Syria’s Idlib – Russian Military

Politico, December 2021 — Russia claims US mercenaries plan chemical attack in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky found this allegation sufficiently disturbing to address it publicly.

"When today 🇷🇺Minister of Defense organizes a phone carousel & calls foreign ministers with stories about the so-called "dirty" nuclear bomb, everyone understands everything well. Understands who is the source of everything dirty that can be imagined in this war", – @ZelenskyyUa pic.twitter.com/mx6PZWCNEn

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) October 23, 2022

This threat from Russia seems linked to a similar “warning” that Ukraine is planning to destroy the Nova Kahkhova Dam, flooding the left bank of the Dniepr and cutting off most of Crimea from water supplies. I cover this issue in some detail in my post titled Putin’s War, Week 34. False Flags, Martial Law, and ‘Dammed if You Do and Dammed if You Don’t.’

Whatever Shoigu thought he was going to accomplish, it doesn’t look like he was wildly successful.

As an aside, accusing the country with the cement sarcophagus containing the remains of the worst nuclear disaster in history of creating another such disaster as the war turns in its favor is not the most plausible conspiracy theory I’ve encountered. The fact that Shoigu’s trial balloon was rejected is encouraging. It doesn’t mean that Russia won’t carry out a “dirty bomb” incident near ZNPP; it just means that no one will believe the Ukrainians are behind it.