‘Will be forced to react’: Putin warns UK on sending depleted uranium tank shells to Ukraine

Moscow: President Vladimir Putin warned that Russia would be “forced to react accordingly” if the United Kingdom delivers depleted uranium armor-piercing tank ammunition to Ukraine, saying the weapons will be treated by Moscow as containing “nuclear components.”

The Russian President made the comments during the Moscow visit by his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The leader was reacting to UK’s minister of state for defence, Annabel Goldie, announcement that her country would supply “armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium to Ukraine alongwith 14 Challenger 2 tanks as they are deemed “highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles”.

Putin’s warning to UK

“The United Kingdom… announced not only the supply of tanks to Ukraine but also shells with depleted uranium. I would like to note that if this happens, then Russia will be forced to react accordingly, bearing in mind that the collective West has already started to use weapons with a nuclear component,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

It can be recalled that the Russian leader frequently makes nuclear-related threats, majorly in an effort to persuade western countries, including the US, to limit their interventions in Ukraine war, which started on 24 February, 2022, by Moscow’s invasion.

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu also issued a similar warning and said that the UK’s decision left fewer steps before a potential “nuclear collision” between Russia and the West.

“Another step has been taken, and there are fewer and fewer left,” Shoigu told reporters on the sidelines of the Russia-China talks on Tuesday.

‘Russia deliberately trying to disinform’

In its response, Britain accused Russia of “deliberately trying to disinform”. The UK Ministry of Defence said that depleted uranium “has nothing to do with nuclear weapons and capabilities,” adding that it was “a standard component” used by militaries including Russia itself.

“Russia knows this,” the ministry’s spokesperson said.

An anti-nuclear organisation – Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) – condemned the UK’s decision to send the ammunition, calling it an “additional environmental and health disaster for those living through the conflict” as toxic or radioactive dust can be released on impact.

A report by AFP quoted CND’s general secretary, Kate Hudson, saying: “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.”

Depleted uranium ammunitions?

For long, the depleted uranium ammunitions have been the subject of international controversy, with critics highlighting that toxicity and radioactivity of the material.

Depleted uranium is a by-product of the nuclear enriching process used to make nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons which makes it less radioactive than the naturally occurring metal, although concerns remain about its toxicity.

It is used to make the hardened cores of armor-piercing rounds, as it works well due its high density. The round’s core evaporates on impact, turning into aerosol and contaminating the environment with uranium.

Similar munitions were used by the UK and the US in the Iraq and Gulf wars in 1991 and 2003. Meanwhile, a recent review of studies in BMJ Global Health highlighted “possible associations” of long-term health problems among Iraqis linked to depleted uranium use on the battlefield.

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