The destruction of depleted uranium ammunition supplied by the West to Ukraine has led to the appearance of a radioactive cloud that is heading toward Western Europe, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said on Friday.
"They (the US) also 'helped' Ukraine, put pressure on their satellites and supplied ammunition with depleted uranium. Its destruction led to the fact that a radioactive cloud headed towards Western Europe. And an increase in radiation has already been recorded in Poland," Patrushev said.
In addition, the United States is developing and already using chemical and biological weapons, including on the territory of Ukraine, the official added.
‘Conflict is coming,’ UK defense secretary warns
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has warned that the UK could enter a direct conflict with Russia and China in the next seven years and has called for an increase in military spending to counter the potential threat.
Speaking to the Financial Times on Friday, the official claimed that the world will be “a more dangerous, unstable place” by the end of the decade and that “defense will be more critical in our lives.” He explained that the world is seeing “the end of the abnormal period [of peace] post-cold war” and that “a conflict is coming with a range of adversaries around the world.”
Wallace has pleaded to Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt to establish a firm timetable for increasing the UK’s military spending from 2.1% to 2.5% of gross domestic product. That’s after Hunt had previously expressed his support for the proposal and promised in March to supply the Defense Ministry with an extra £11 billion ($13.6bn) over the next five years.
The defense secretary also applauded Germany’s recently announced plans to set up a €100-billion ($107bn) fund to modernize its armed forces, and called it “an important message for [people] across Britain that we’re going back to the days where you need to invest in defense.”
However, while Wallace has been pushing for more military spending and more military support for Ukraine, he has also been calling for a significant reduction in the size of Britain’s own army. Last week, the Times reported that the Defence Secretary intends to proceed with plans to cut down the number of infantry personnel from 82,000 to just over 70,000 and the number of tanks from 227 to 148.
“We have too much infantry – a legacy of the counter-insurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We need more artillery. The jury is out on whether you need main battle tanks,” a government source told the outlet.
Meanwhile, military experts have warned that the UK at present may not be up to task if it were to have a military engagement with a near-peer adversary. Wallace himself had previously stated that Britain’s army is “hollowed out and underfunded” while retired General Richard Barrons claimed that the UK would run out of ammo within just hours in case of a major conflict.
UK, Norway Launch 'Strategic Partnership' in Undersea Domain
Despite the nations ostensibly teaming up to protect undersea infrastructure following Nord Stream blasts, the extent of their own alleged culpability in the attacks, which robbed Central and Western Europe of a major source of natural gas, remains unclear.
The UK and Norway have signed a security partnership in undersea domain, which includes the prevention of attacks on infrastructure, including gas pipeline and cables.
Under the agreement, announced by the defense ministers of both countries, Ben Wallace and Bjorn Arild Gram, Britain and Norway have also pledged to exchange intelligence, counter mine threats and improve the detection of submarines from hostile nations.
"The growing use of the seabed for energy and communications purposes has resulted in increased opportunities for adversaries to threaten Western subsea critical national infrastructure, as seen through the damaging of the Nord Stream pipeline, where the UK and Norway have jointly increased security patrols in the region," a statement by the UK Defence Ministry said, citing "shared interests in the North Sea" and promising to simplify the process for allies and partners to "join or complement" the UK-Norwegian cooperation.
Gram also cited last year's sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines as a "concrete reminder of what is at stake."
This announcement builds on ongoing defense cooperation between the two countries, as well as shared capabilities such as P-8A maritime patrol aircraft and F-35s. On a more concrete level, the UK will send its first patrolling ship, the RFA Proteus, to the North Sea in July, with the goal of protecting wind farms, cables and gas pipelines in Norwegian and British waters, Wallace said, claiming Russia's alleged "intent and capability" to sabotage critical Western infrastructure.
The references to the Nord Stream blast sounded rather uncanny as a series of revelation pieces published by US veteran journalist Seymour Hersh earlier this year specifically uncovered Norway's alleged role in it. According to Hersh, explosives under the Russian pipelines were planted by US Navy divers, assisted by Norwegian specialists, under the guise of the Baltops exercise.
Hersh furthermore wrote that "much of the secret planning and training" for the sabotage attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines "took place in Norway," citing the Norwegian Navy's "long and murky history of cooperation with American intelligence," starting from the Vietnam War, where at least two Norwegian seamen had confessed to complicity in covert operations organized by the CIA.
The role of the UK in the Nord Stream blasts isn't clear as well, as last November Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sought answers regarding the mysterious "It's done" iPhone message allegedly sent by then-Prime Minister Liz Truss to the US secretary of state Antony Blinken moments after the sabotage attacks against the Nord Stream network in late September.
Following the blasts, Western officials and media immediately launched a chorus claiming that Russia blew up its own $20 billion pipeline infrastructure for whatever reasons. The Kremlin accused the West of an "unprecedented act of state terrorism" involving Nord Stream, but did not name any specific states, with President Vladimir Putin only hinting involvement by the "Anglo-Saxons" (which in Russia is seen as a typical reference to the Anglosphere).
US Explains What Happened When Patriot Tried to Intercept Russia's Kinzhal
Earlier, US officials said they were "still assessing" damage dealt to the Patriot air defense system by a hypersonic Kinzhal missile.
US-made air defense system Patriot lost all of its 32 missiles trying to intercept a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger), an international portal, dedicated to military analytics, has reported. This attempt reportedly costed roughly $96 million.
The military experts cited by the outlet stress that Kinzhal missiles were specially designed to avoid and destroy air defense systems, which is why the US-made Patriot had no chance. They add that Patriots are rather easy prey since their radars give out powerful electromagnetic waves and Russian Armed Forces have no problem locating them. The American air defense system is static and it takes a great effort to relocate it.
Previously Russian MoD stated that Kinzhals destroyed a multifunctional radar station in Kiev as well as five launchers of Patriot surface-to-air missiles interceptors.
Sputnik Editor-in-Chief Received Parcel With Traces of Explosives
Editor-in-Chief of the RT broadcaster and the Rossiya Segodnya media group Margarita Simonyan said on Friday that a parcel that was sent to her from Hong Kong did not contain any explosive device.
Earlier in the day, Simonyan said that a parcel with traces of explosives addressed to her had arrived at work.
"The parcel is from Hong Kong. There was no explosive device," Simonyan wrote on Telegram.
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