KYIV, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Western countries accused Russia on Monday of plotting to use a threat of a "dirty bomb" laced with nuclear material as a pretext for escalation in Ukraine, as Moscow evacuated civilians from a southern city in anticipation of a major battle.
With Ukrainian forces advancing into Russian-occupied Kherson province, top Russian officials phoned Western counterparts on Sunday and again on Monday to tell them Moscow suspected Kyiv of planning to use a so-called "dirty bomb".
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of France, Britain and the United States said they had all rejected the allegations and reaffirmed their support for Ukraine against Russia.
"Our countries made clear that we all reject Russia’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory," they said. "The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation."
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu phoned Western counterparts on Sunday. British Chief of Defence Staff Tony Radakin again rejected Russia's allegations in a call with Russian military Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov on Monday, the British defence ministry said in a statement.
Russia's RIA news agency reported Gerasimov also spoke to the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, on Monday, eight months to the day since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russia's defence ministry said the aim of a "dirty bomb" attack by Ukraine would to blame the resulting radioactive contamination on Russia.
"The aim of the provocation would be to accuse Russia of using a weapon of mass destruction in the Ukrainian military theatre and by that means to launch a powerful anti-Russian campaign in the world," it said, adding that it had prepared its forces to work in conditions of radioactive contamination.
In an overnight address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had said the Russian accusation was a sign Moscow was planning such an attack itself and would blame Ukraine.
"If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this," Zelenskiy said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the accusation against Moscow was "not a serious conversation", Interfax news agency reported.
EVACUATION
Russia has ordered civilians to evacuate territory it controls on the western bank of the Dnipro River, where Ukrainian forces have been advancing since the start of this month shortly after Moscow claimed to have annexed the area.
A Russian defeat there would be one of Moscow's biggest setbacks yet.
Kherson's regional capital is the only big city Russia has captured intact since its Feb. 24 invasion, and its only foothold on the west bank of the Dnipro, which bisects Ukraine. The province controls the gateway to Crimea, the peninsula Russia seized and claimed to annex in 2014.
The Russian-installed authorities in Kherson announced on Monday that men who stay behind would have the option of joining a military self-defence unit. Kyiv accuses Russia of press-ganging men in occupied areas into military formations, a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine's military spy chief, said Russian forces were preparing to defend Kherson city, not retreat.
"They are creating the illusion that all is lost. Yet at the same time they are moving new military units in and preparing to defend the streets of Kherson," he told the Ukrainska Pravda online media outlet.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Facebook Russian forces had launched three missile and seven air raids throughout Ukraine in the last 24 hours, damaging infrastructure in heavily contested areas of the Donetsk region in the east and in areas of the Kharkiv region in the northeast freed last month from Russian occupation.
About 10 towns came under attack in the Zaporizhzhia region of central Ukraine, it said, as did eight towns on the southern front - where Ukrainian forces are engaged in a counter-offensive in Kherson.
Since Russia's forces suffered major battlefield defeats in September, President Vladimir Putin has escalated the war, calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists, announcing the annexation of occupied territory and repeatedly threatening to use nuclear weapons to defend Russian land.
This month, Russia started a new campaign using long-range cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones to attack Ukraine's energy infrastructure ahead of winter.
Iran should not "remain indifferent" if it is proved that its drones are being used "in the Ukraine war against people", state media cited Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as saying.
However, Amirabdollahian said defence cooperation between Tehran and Moscow would continue.
Russian state television is filled with talk shows featuring pundits who are openly cheering attacks on Ukrainian civil infrastructure.
On Monday, Russian state TV presenter Anton Krasovsky apologised for remarks in which he called for Ukrainian children to be drowned in rivers and burned alive in huts with the doors nailed shut. He also joked that Ukrainian grandmothers were saving their funeral funds to pay Russian soldiers to rape them.
Krasovsky was suspended from Russia's state-funded international channel RT, and Russia's Investigative Committee said it had ordered a report into his "sharp comments".
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Krasovsky would be prosecuted some day for promoting genocide, and called on countries to ban RT.
