UK Minister of State for Defense Annabel Goldie said on Tuesday that London would provide Ukraine with armor piercing shells for the Challenger 2 main battle tanks it has decided to send to Kiev, including depleted uranium ammunition.
“Today it became known that the United Kingdom, through its deputy head of the ministry of defense, announced not only the supply of tanks to Ukraine, but also shells with depleted uranium," Russian President Vladimir Putin said, adding that "it seems that the West really decided to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, not in words, but in deed."
"I would like to note in this regard that if all this happens, then Russia will be forced to react accordingly - I mean that the Collective West is already starting to use weapons with a nuclear component," Putin added.
His comments came after meetings with a delegation of high-level Chinese officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Later in the day, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned the United Kingdom that there would be few red lines left uncrossed if it delivered on its promise to give Ukraine depleted uranium weapons. "I can only say this: We are running out of red lines … Another line has been crossed and there are fewer and fewer of them left," he told reporters in Moscow.
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium refining process composed of uranium-238, which is not useful for generating nuclear chain reactions but which is extremely dense and used to make armor-piercing ammunition. However, it still possesses radioactive properties that can be very harmful to humans and is highly toxic, making it a dangerous weapon long after the engagement in which it was fired.
Sites in Iraq and Yugoslavia which US forces used depleted uranium to attack have been associated with increases in birth defects and rare forms of cancer associated with exposure to radioactive materials, including depleted uranium and related radioactive isotopes.
While Moscow has repeatedly warned about the creeping danger of some kind of nuclear exchange as a result of NATO's support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, Western governments and media have tried to spin such warnings as being threats about the use of nuclear weapons. Putin has since made it explicitly clear that Moscow intends to maintain its no-first-use policy regarding nuclear weapons.
Russia launched its special operation in Ukraine in February 2022 after months of negotiations with Kiev and NATO failed to yield a situation that respected Moscow's security red lines, most especially regarding Ukraine's prospective membership in the alliance and the possibility of NATO weapons being stationed on Russia's borders. The operation aims to neutralize that possibility.
Kiev's Use of Depleted Uranium Ammo May Cause Health Problems Akin to Yugoslavia and Iraq
The use of ammunitions with depleted uranium (DU) by the Kiev regime may result in a spike of oncological diseases akin to the outbreak registered in the aftermath of the Yugoslav War, Ivan Konovalov, military expert and political analyst, told Sputnik.
On March 21, UK Minister for Defense Annabel Goldie told British lawmakers that London would grant a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Kiev, as well as ammunition including armor-piercing rounds that contain depleted uranium. "Such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armored vehicles," she bragged.
"The main feature of these shells is that they have a very high level of penetration. Depleted uranium provides a level of penetration that other shells do not," Konovalov told Sputnik. "I recall the history of the Yugoslav War; I worked there [at the time]. The Americans used depleted uranium in their air bombs."
In March 2000, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) confirmed to the United Nations that depleted uranium (DU) was used during the Kosovo conflict. NATO secretary-general at the time, Lord Robertson, told the international body that "DU rounds were used whenever the A-10 engaged armor during Operation Allied Force." It was used throughout Kosovo during approximately 100 missions with "a total of approximately 31,000 rounds" of DU ammo being used during NATO's bombings of Yugoslavia.
"As far as we know, the people who were involved in this, including those on the American side, fell ill with oncological diseases, and in those areas where ammunition was used against Yugoslav cities, there were also outbreaks of oncological diseases. The Americans deny this; they say that it has nothing to do with it. But, nevertheless, the fact is obvious. At least we are witnessing that such ammunition caused outbreaks of cancer," Konovalov continued.
DU ammunition was also heavily used by US forces and their NATO allies in the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iraqi doctors and campaigners allege that the radioactive material contained in the munitions caused horrific birth defects and increased cancer rates. The US National Institutes of Health released a study in 2021 stating that the evidence gathered "suggests possible associations between exposure to depleted uranium and adverse health outcomes among the Iraqi population."
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