UK Laughs Off Russian Threat, Says it Will Provide Ukraine With Depleted Uranium Shells
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The UK laughed off Russia’s latest threat after announcing that it will provide Ukraine with Challenger 2 tanks along with its shells made with armor-piercing depleted uranium.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the decision to provide Ukraine with the technology is escalatory because the munitions contain “nuclear components.”
He said if the transfer these DU munitions take place, “Russia will be forced to react accordingly, bearing in mind that the collective West has already started to use weapons with a nuclear component,” RT.com, the Russian outlet, reported.
Britain insisted that depleted uranium “is a standard component and has nothing to do with nuclear weapons.”
"The British Army has used depleted uranium in its armor piercing shells for decades," the Ministry of Defense said, according to the BBC. “Russia knows this, but is deliberately trying to disinform. Independent research by scientists from groups such as the Royal Society has assessed that any impact to personal health and the environment from the use of depleted uranium munitions is likely to be low.”
Sergey Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, also said, the world is another step closer to a nuclear disaster, RT reported.
“Another step has been taken, and there are fewer and fewer left,” he said.
FAST FACT: (Depleted uranium is a dense metal produced as a by-product of enrichment of natural uranium for nuclear fuel. It is still radioactive, but at a much lower level than the starting material. It is used in armour-piercing shells and bombs, to give them more penetrating power. Such munitions were used in both Gulf Wars and in Serbia and Kosovo. Their use has raised concerns about health threats from exposure to the distributed uranium. Many studies have reported a lack of evidence of hazard, but their results remain controversial.- source: Ec.Europa.eu)
The BBC reported that the U.S. announced Tuesday that it will not be sending any munitions with depleted uranium to Ukraine.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs informed members who may have been exposed that “recent research shows there may be an association between elevated urine uranium in these Veterans and lower bone mineral density (BMD). The BMD results require further study to determine if they persist over time and researchers and clinicians continue to monitor the health of these Veterans.”