Russia will ‘retaliate’ if UK supplies Kiev with uranium munitions: Putin – WorldNews WAALI

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow would be “forced to respond” if Britain supplied Ukraine with military supplies, including depleted uranium armor-piercing bombs.

“Britain … announced not only the supply of tanks to Ukraine, but also the supply of depleted uranium shells. If that happens, Russia will be forced to respond,” Putin told reporters after talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Kremlin.

Putin was responding to a written reply from British Defense Secretary Annabel Goldie who asked “whether any ammunition currently supplied to Ukraine contains depleted uranium”.

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He responded on Monday that “in addition to supplying Ukraine with squadrons of Challenger 2 main battle tanks, we will be supplying ammunition including depleted uranium armor-piercing rounds.

Britain is ‘warming up’ arms exports to help Ukraine, says defense minister

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“This ammunition is very effective in defeating modern tanks and armored vehicles.”

Depleted uranium is a by-product of the nuclear enrichment process used to make nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. It is about 60% as radioactive as natural uranium.

Its weight makes it suitable for use with armor-piercing rounds, as it helps them penetrate steel with ease.

But the United Nations Environment Program has described it as “a heavy metal that is chemically and radiotoxic”.

The anti-nuclear group CND condemned the decision to fire the bullet, saying it was “an additional environmental and health disaster for those who have lived through the conflict” because of the toxic or radioactive fallout that would be released on impact.

“The CND has repeatedly called on the UK government to put an immediate moratorium on the use of depleted uranium weapons and to fund long-term research into its health and environmental effects,” said CND Secretary General Kate Hudson.

The weapons were used in conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq, and have been suspected as a possible cause of “Gulf War syndrome,” a debilitating cluster of symptoms suffered by veterans of the 1990-91 war.

Researchers at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom tested the levels of depleted uranium left in the victims’ bodies and said their 2021 study “conclusively” proved that none of them were exposed to significant amounts of depleted uranium.