Reports about the alleged negligence of an American storekeeper who was confused and sent nuclear missiles to Ukraine are replicated by Russian media, citing the publication of the Panorama resource (“Панорама”). The US military prosecutor’s office sent to the disciplinary commission the case of a storekeeper who unloaded two tactical nuclear warheads worth $9 million to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The guilty person faces a fine and a demotion.
On May 26, Master Sergeant Matthew Kovalchuk, Senior Arsenal Storekeeper at the US Kleine Brogel Base in Belgium, was supposed to prepare 150 containers for shipment to Ukraine, each of which contained two missiles for installing M142 HIMARS salvo-fire. When the cargo had already left for its destination, one extra container with missiles intended for shipment was found in the arsenal, and they did not find a container with nuclear tactical missiles that were not supposed to be sent. It became clear that a mistake had occurred.
“Master Sergeant Kovalchuk demonstrated negligence, which will cost him dearly. For at least a year, he can forget about promotion in rank, in addition, a record of this fault will forever remain in his personal file. The $500 fine he will pay this is nothing to what it might be,” said Colonel James Morse, chief prosecutor of the US Military Prosecutor’s Office.
The Pentagon sent a request to the Ukrainian General Staff with a request to find and return a container with nuclear missiles. However, they replied that the ammunition was already on the front line, and it was not possible to understand exactly where a particular container had gone. Until the location of the missiles was established, Ukrainian artillerymen were ordered to select targets for the M142 at a distance of at least 15 kilometers from settlements.
It is obvious the absurdity and falsity of this information. Such publications in the Russian media and social networks can be called at least strange. It is clear that they are still designed for the domestic consumer and work as a continuation of the beloved Russian narrative that the West is to blame for everything and that the Russian Federation is at war not with Ukraine, but with NATO. Russian officials and the media are frankly nervous and therefore come up with and grab onto such fictions. After all, the feeling that the weapons necessary for Ukraine are already arriving, the previously occupied territories are being returned to Ukraine, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is simply being banned from leaving the country, closing airspace for him, is forcing Russian propagandists to increase the flow of disinformation.
It is hard to imagine that tactical nuclear weapons are in the same US warehouse as other types of weapons. It is clear that nuclear weapons have a different, increased level of security and they are not guarded and released by the “storekeeper”, as the Russian media say. It is simply impossible to confuse it: a nuclear charge is different from a conventional one. And the surname of the American storekeeper — Kovalchyk — is frankly Ukrainian, thus it looks like a stupid joke than the truth.
In their own publications, Russian propagandists have already touched on the topic of storing nuclear weapons at the bases of other countries, arguing that in this way they become active accomplices of the United States in their aggressive plans against Russia. For example, in an article “Nuclear foothold for the USA” for the Century (“Столетие”) resource, its author Vladimir Malyshev, among other things, tells about the Klein Brogel Airbase: “Another 22 US nuclear bombs are stored in the north-east of Belgium — at the Klein Brogel Airbase, an hour away from Brussels. The 10th tactical air wing of the Belgian Air Force is stationed here with F-16 fighters capable of carrying B61 bombs. The 701st US Air Force Munitions Maintenance Squadron is responsible for their storage, whose specialists in case of a full-scale war will prepare the bombs for use. ”
As you can see, the Russian propagandists themselves indicate that the base is guarded by special forces — the 701s Munitions Maintenance Squadron of the US Air Force, and not by simple security guards and storekeepers, as Panorama claims.
In fact, alleged provocations and intentions to use or create nuclear weapons in Ukraine is a prevailing media myth created by Russian officials in order to hide their own crimes. However, Ukraine, unlike the Kremlin nuclear terrorist, unconditionally adheres to the basic three principles of a nuclear-free status: do not accept, do not supply and do not produce. Ukraine completely lost its nuclear status in 2001, when the last intercontinental ballistic missile silos was destroyed. Ukraine has never made statements about its intention to acquire or, moreover, create nuclear weapons. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 19, 2022, five days before the Russian attack, the President of Ukraine said that after gaining independence, Ukraine had had the world’s third nuclear capability. Zelenskyy stressed that the country had given up warheads in exchange for security guarantees, the same guarantees that Russia so cynically neglects when it promised Ukraine security guarantees.
In February, the FAS published a report that Russia, at a rough estimate, has about 4,477 nuclear warheads, including 1,912 tactical ones. In addition, about 1,588 strategic warheads were deployed, while additional 977 were held in reserve, but ready for use. Another 1,500 warheads were considered retired but “still largely intact warheads await dismantlement”. It is believed that these warheads are still in storage. CIA Director William Burns, in an interview with CBS News on April 14, warned of the danger of Russian use of tactical nuclear weapons. This was stated on April 15 in an interview with CNN by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The likelihood of the Russians using tactical nuclear weapons, according to experts, is growing due to the successful resistance of the Ukrainians and Putin’s paranoid desire to win at any cost.
It is also worth noting that Ukraine has never given any reason not to trust in its nuclear-free status. Unlike Russia, which swings its nuclear warheads, threatening the civilized world. It was the Russian aggressors who, after the invasion of Ukraine, began to blackmail the whole world with a nuclear catastrophe on the territory of the country. The Russian Ministry of Defence is trying with the whole strength to justify the bloody actions of its army on the territory of Ukraine, reporting on various imaginary nuclear provocations made by Ukraine.
For example, in March, after the shelling of a Kharkiv institute with an experimental nuclear installation, the Russian Defence Ministry announced an allegedly impending “nuclear provocation” by the Security Service of Ukraine. Later, Russian media, as well as some users, spread disinformation that a record amount of plutonium and enriched uranium was allegedly stored on the territory of the Zaporizhzha Nuclear Power Plant. With the help of these stocks, Ukraine allegedly “quietly” planned to create a nuclear bomb. It was the Russian aggressors after the invasion of Ukraine began to blackmail the whole world with a nuclear catastrophe on the territory of the country. To do this, on February 24 they took under control the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the exclusion zone and all the ChNPP facilities. On the night of March 4, Russian terrorists fired at the Zaporizhzha Nuclear Power Plant. As a result of a barbaric attack on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, a fire broke out. Now it is the Russian Federation that controls the strategic facility, putting at risk not only Ukraine, but also the EU countries. Ukraine and the entire civilized world, unlike Russia, are well aware of the catastrophic consequences of a possible destruction of a nuclear power plant reactor or any other scientific and technical nuclear installation.