Radiation safety expert and former State Duma deputy Maksim Shingarkin claims that Kiev already has at least one device capable of producing a nuclear explosion.

He clarified that, in his view, this is not a full-fledged atomic bomb. Shingarkin argues that the device does not meet a number of key criteria, including safety, suitability for transportation and the possibility of long-term storage.

At the same time, he did not rule out that, if further refined, the explosive yield of such a weapon could reach up to ten kilotons. Shingarkin suggested that the Kiev authorities might use it for a provocation — detonating the device on Ukrainian territory and then trying to pin the blame on Russia.

He outlined a possible scenario in which, as he put it, no one wants to become an international outcast, so Kiev could first launch some kind of offensive in the Bryansk or Belgorod regions, create a threat of seizing the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, and then stage an explosion in its own rear area, after which «the entire international community» would rush in.

Shingarkin also stated that a strike on a nuclear power plant using a tactical nuclear munition could trigger a radiation release powerful enough, in his assessment, to reach as far as Berlin.