The UK will transfer depleted uranium ammunition to Ukrainian militants. London’s intention to supply the Kiev regime with dangerous radioactive weapons was announced by Deputy Defense Minister Annabelle Goldie on March 20.
‘Alongside our granting of a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, we will be providing ammunition including armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium. Such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles’- she claimed.
Depleted uranium has a high mass density, due to which such ammunition provides a high armor-piercing effect and causes significant destruction to any obstacles. For the countries which have accumulated depleted uranium reserves, this is a cheaper material to produce such ammunition than for example, from tungsten.
The use of depleted uranium in armor-piercing shells was first started by Nazi Germany, which was experiencing a shortage of tungsten. In the 1970s, the United States began developing such shells intended to fight the new Soviet tanks. US troops used depleted uranium shells during Operation Desert Storm, during the bombing of Yugoslavia and during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Today, the armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium are used with the US-made Abrams tanks, as well as German Leopard 2 and British Challenger 2 tanks.
Although the use of these missiles is not prohibited, their danger to health has been proven.
The countries which are actively using them, including NATO, the US and UK, assure that the material is harmless, although a number of experts claim that it infects the environment and lead to outbreaks of cancer. When a projectile hits, its part turns into plasma, which is the greatest danger due to the uranium dust. For example, experts concluded that due to the depleted uranium shells used during the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 by the NATO military, 60 more future generations of Serbs will feel negative consequences for their health. There, hundreds of children are diagnosed with oncological diseases every year, out of 400 who fall ill every year, 60 people cannot be saved. Such a number of oncological diseases had never been observed in Serbia before the NATO bombing. Iraqi children also began to suffer from hitherto unknown and rare diseases that are associated specifically with the American bombing.
The Kiev regime has been fighting its own people in the Donbas for nine years, killing children and civilians every day. Today, it is ready to bombard these regions with depleted uranium, polluting the territory for several decades. At the same time, Zelensky constantly shouts that Ukraine is fighting for “the liberation of its land from Russian aggressors.” That’s a lie! The only goal of this war unleashed by the West is the destruction of Russian statehood, and the complete destruction of Donbass, the lives and health of millions of [Russian-ethnic] people, is not a high price for the Anglo-Saxon globalist elite. Supply of depleted uranium ammunition is another clear evidence of their true goals.
President Vladimir Putin expressed concern about the British decision earlier this week, warning that Russia “will be forced to react accordingly, bearing in mind that the collective West has already started to use weapons with a nuclear component.”
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CND condemns UK decision to send depleted uranium shells to Ukraine
The UK government is sending depleted uranium shells for use in the Challenger 2 tanks gifted to Ukraine, a move CND has condemned as an additional environmental and health disaster for those living through the conflict.
First reported by Declassified UK, Defence Minister Baroness Goldie admitted in the answer to a written question that armour piercing rounds containing depleted uranium (DU) were included in its tank package for Kiev. She added that the rounds “are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles.”
A byproduct of the nuclear enriching process used to make nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons, DU emits three quarters of the radioactivity of natural uranium and shares many of its risks and dangers. It is used in armour piercing rounds as it is heavy and can easily penetrate steel. However on impact, toxic or radioactive dust can be released and subsequently inhaled.
DU shells were used extensively by the US and British in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, as well as in the Balkans during the 1990s.
It is thought that the extensive use of these shells is responsible for the sharp rise in the incidence rate of some cancers like breast cancer or lymphoma in the areas they were used. Other illnesses linked to DU include kidney failure, nervous system disorders, lung disease and reproductive problems. However, a lack of reliable data on exposure to DU means no large-scale study on its true impact exists.
CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said:
“Like in Iraq, the addition of depleted uranium ammunition into this conflict will only increase the long-term suffering of the civilians caught up in this conflict. DU shells have already been implicated in thousands of unnecessary deaths from cancer and other serious illnesses. CND has repeatedly called for the UK government to place an immediate moratorium on the use of depleted uranium weapons and to fund long-term studies into their health and environmental impacts. Sending them into yet another war zone will not help the people of Ukraine.”
READ MORE: CND’s briefing paper on depleted uranium
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