London wants to ‘scorch’ the earth in Ukraine with uranium shells — diplomat

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova
© Russian foreign Ministry press service/TASS

The United Kingdom wants to turn the territory of Ukraine into a "scorched earth" by supplying Kiev with depleted uranium munitions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The diplomat drew attention to statements from the UK Ministry of Defense, which said the day before that the impact of depleted uranium munitions on the health of military personnel and the environment would likely be "small."

"The UK, by supplying depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine, wants to turn its territory into a scorched and desolate land. No Russian will be spoken there, no Ukrainian will be spoken there, there will only be silence. Like in Pripyat and Chernobyl," she wrote on her Telegram channel on Monday.

Zakharova recalled that depleted uranium munitions were mass-produced and used in NATO operations. "To a large extent, operations with such munitions in the NATO contingent were carried out by Italian servicemen.... Italian soldiers' area of responsibility in Yugoslavia included territories where more than half of all the depleted uranium munitions were fired," she added.

"The Serbs were the first victims and the Italians second in line, studying how depleted uranium affects the personnel using it," Zakharova said. She pointed to the growing number of lawsuits filed by Italians against the country's defense ministry. "The underlying reason is the same - cancer. Cancer from handling depleted uranium munitions," she said.

British Parliamentary Secretary of State Baroness Annabel Goldie said in a written response to a question by a member of the House of Lords in March that the United Kingdom would supply Ukraine with shells containing depleted uranium and having increased efficiency in destroying armored vehicles. The British Defense Ministry described depleted uranium as a standard component of armor-piercing ammunition, which has been used for decades.

Commenting on the decision of the British authorities, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would be forced to respond accordingly to the fact that "the West is already starting to use weapons with a nuclear component."

The Russian embassy in the UK warned London against transferring depleted uranium ammunition to Kiev. The diplomatic mission's commentary stressed that the move was fraught with an escalation of the conflict, while the use of such munitions in Ukraine would affect the health of the local population.