In reality, the story concerns the supply of low-enriched uranium for nuclear power plants — fuel that is fundamentally unsuitable for either nuclear or “dirty” weapons.
Russian propagandists have begun circulating a conspiracy theory claiming that the United Kingdom is transferring enriched uranium worth $280 million to Kyiv, which Ukraine allegedly intends to use to create a “dirty bomb” or carry out a nuclear strike against Russia.
In reality, this is yet another piece of Kremlin disinformation. The story concerns the supply of low-enriched uranium for nuclear power plants — fuel that is fundamentally unsuitable for either nuclear or “dirty” weapons.
On June 15th, 2026, the British government officially announced the allocation of £210 million (approximately $280 million) through UK Export Finance: these funds guarantee a loan that allows the British company Urenco to supply enriched uranium to the Ukrainian state operator Energoatom for powering Ukrainian nuclear power plants over the next two years. The agreement was concluded at a meeting between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Volodymyr Zelensky in London and announced at the G7 summit in Évian. This is not the first such contract: Urenco and Energoatom have been working together since 2009, and in 2023 they already concluded a supply agreement running to 2035 with an option to extend to 2043.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy and the state enterprise Energoatom have repeatedly emphasized that cooperation with Western partners — including the United Kingdom and the United States (the company Westinghouse) — is directed exclusively toward achieving full energy independence from Russia. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has completely abandoned Russian nuclear fuel. All Ukrainian nuclear power plants operate under the continuous monitoring of IAEA inspectors, who regularly confirm that all nuclear materials in the country are being used exclusively for peaceful purposes and that there are no indications of the development of undeclared weapons or “dirty bombs” at Ukrainian facilities.
Disinformation campaigns of this kind intensify particularly whenever Ukraine concludes major contracts aimed at strengthening its energy infrastructure. StopFake has previously debunked fakes claiming that Ukraine was allegedly “preparing a dirty bomb provocation” and that Western aid to Kyiv was leading to “inevitable nuclear escalation.”
