It Is Not True that “Radioactive Cloud” Is Moving towards Western Europe

There is no radioactive cloud moving towards Western Europe and it is not true that increased level of radiation was identified in Poland. In Khmelnytskyi the level of radiation is within permissible limits. It was measured and published by the local authorities. This disinformation has already been debunked by foreign fact-checkers

We are fact-checking a post published on the social network Facebook (screenshot here) claiming:

Radioactive cloud is moving towards Western Europe, warned Moscow. And you think that this will be a headline in any of your newspapers? ”Increased level of radiation was identified in Poland”, stated Nikolai Patrushev. It is related to the destruction of an ammunition depot with depleted uranium in Khmelnytskyi by the Russian Forces. This situation is due to the US “assistance” that “exerted pressure on its satellite-states to secure this kind of ammunition” to the regime in Kyiv, stressed the Secretary of the Russian Security Council. Without sparing the “assistance”, Washington is already developing and using chemical and biological weapons, including on the territory of Ukraine, added the high official.

Fact-checkers from Detector Media write that this is disinformation. Fact-checkers from Insider project have already investigated this case and discovered that the level of radiation in Ukraine is not higher than usual. In addition, on 17th May, the State Atomic Agency of Poland denied the alleged higher level of radiation in Poland on the border with Ukraine. The Agency reported that the radiation in the Eastern regions of Poland was normal.

And the station in Trieste had not recorded any anomaly in terms of radioactivity on 19th May this year.

By spreading this disinformation, the propagandists are trying to promote a message that the weapons given to Ukraine only make the situation worse and that Ukraine is ”a field for testing Western weapons”.

The disinformation occurred not only in Poland, but also in Lithuania.

We are aware of that misinformation. Several residents have already reported on it. However, everything that is written in the publication is untrue. There was no release of radioactive materials into the environment and the radiation background was not changed. There are absolutely no threats related to an increase in radiation in the environment, stated Paulius Ruzele, Head of Accident Management and Training Department of the Radiation Protection Center of Lithuania.

This disinformation was also denied by the City Council of Khmelnytskyi adding that the purpose of such news was to spread panic. Therefore, the Council recommended to the citizens to remain calm and not to panic.

During the briefing on 15th May, Volodymyr Trush, Governor of the local authority of Ternopil said that no ammunition had exploded and stressed that the city had no environmental problems.

After the shelling on the 13th May 2023 experts were measuring the presence of harmful substances in the air, water and soil, and the analysis of the quality of water and soil indicated that the level of radiation was within the permissible limits which was an indicator that people’s lives were not at risk.

Due to all of the above-noted facts, the post fact-checked is assessed as untrue. There is no radioactive cloud moving towards Western Europe and it is not true that an increased level of radiation was noted in Poland. In Khmelnytskyi, the level of radiation is within the permissible limits and it was measured and published by the local authorities.

Regarding the part of the post referring to an alleged explosion of depleted uranium – no evidence is available. Truthmeter has fact-checked previous posts spreading disinformation that chemical and biological weapons is present on the territory of Ukraine.

This article was developed within the framework of the project “Promoting Access to Reliable News to Counter Disinformation”, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. The article, which has been published on the Macedonian-language version of Truthmeter, was produced with the support of the American non-profit foundation NED (National Endowment for Democracy). The contents of the article is the responsibility of the author and do not always reflect the positions of Metamorphosis Foundation, NED or their partners.

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