The Russian Foreign Ministry used a photo from Slovenia dating back to 2010 to support its Twitter allegations of the so-called "dirty bomb" that Ukraine is said to be preparing.
This is what the Slovenian government has declared to the AFP agency.
The use of the photo "was done recklessly and without the knowledge of the Slovenian authorities," said Dragan Barbutovski, adviser to Prime Minister Robert Golob's office.
Previously, the Slovenian government had issued a series of tweets in English denouncing that "the photo used by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Twitter" is "a photo of the Slovenian Radioactive Waste Agency (ARAO)".
On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry published the following message, also in English on Twitter: "Russian Defense Ministry: according to the information available to us, two Ukrainian organizations have been ordered to create the @bombasporca".
And the text of the tweet was illustrated with photos that specifically represent a nuclear power plant, a radioactive waste storage site, scientific research reactors, and plastic bags containing used uranium and plutonium.
On the plastic bags you can read the word "radioaktivno", which in Slovenian means "radioactive".
"One of the photos used in the Russian tweet to refer to the capabilities of the Ukrainian" dirty bomb "dates back to 2010 and is owned by the Slovenian Radioactive Waste Agency (Arao), the Ljubljana government explained in a Twitter post, and it is used as explanatory material in professional presentations and as a means of informing the general public The photo would have been published without the knowledge of the Agency.
"Radioactive waste is stored safely and under surveillance in Slovenia. It will not be used to make dirty bombs," concludes the Slovenian government statement.
Since last Sunday, Russia has accused Ukraine of having prepared a weapon consisting of conventional explosives surrounded by radioactive materials intended to be released during the explosion.
The same accusation reiterated today to China and India.
Ukraine and the West have spoken of "absurd" and "dangerous" allegations suggesting that Russia itself is preparing for an escalation on the battlefield, where its troops have suffered a series of defeats since September.