The White House will supply Ukraine with depleted uranium shells. On this Monday, June 13, informed newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing US officials.
A senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration said there were no “serious obstacles” to approving the decision to transfer depleted uranium munitions to Kiev. According to the WSJ, the White House will soon approve their dispatch after discussions on equipping the M1 Abrams tanks that have continued in recent weeks.
“The Pentagon has requested that the Abrams tanks the United States provides to Ukraine be armed with depleted uranium rounds, which are regularly used by the United States military and are very effective against Russian tanks. Projectiles fired at high speed are capable of penetrating the frontal armor of a Russian tank at long distances,” the article said.
Senior Biden administration officials have said the purpose of the transfer of depleted uranium munitions was “to allow Ukraine to make as much progress as possible on the battlefield, to put Kiev in a position of solid negotiation if the peace talks were finally held”.
At the same time, the WSJ notes, some White House officials have expressed concern that sending in depleted uranium shells could lead to criticism of the United States for providing weapons that could constitute a danger to health and the environment.
What is depleted uranium, how dangerous it is and how it is used in shells, read the Russian media material.
In addition, according to the publication, the Biden administration is discussing the possibility of sending Kiev other weapons, including cluster shells, which the Ukrainian side had previously requested. There are disagreements in the White House on this issue, according to the material. The WSJ recalls that human rights activists and some US allies have expressed concern that unexploded cluster munitions could cause civilian casualties long after the conflict in Ukraine has ended.
Depleted uranium projectiles for Ukraine and disputes over their dangerousness
The UK announced the supply of armour-piercing shells containing depleted uranium for Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine in March. Russian President Vladimir Putin then declared that “the collective West is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component”.
The British Ministry of Defense has accused the Russian side of spreading disinformation about these shells, assuring that they have “nothing to do with nuclear weapons”. Putin disagreed with London’s view.
“The fact is that they, of course, do not belong to the category of weapons of mass destruction. That’s true. But the core of a projectile containing depleted uranium <…> always generates so-called radiation dust. And in this sense, of course, it is among the most dangerous weapons, ”said the head of state, noting that Russia has hundreds of thousands of depleted uranium shells.
According to Putin, the likelihood of radioactive dust entering the environment makes such munitions dangerous to humans. “Not just for the fighters, for the fighters, for the environment and for the people living in this territory,” the president noted.
The WSJ, citing last year’s UN report, writes that the “chemical toxicity” of depleted uranium poses a potential environmental hazard because “it can cause skin irritation, kidney failure and increase the risk of cancer”.
At the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would deploy its Tactical Nuclear Weapons (TNW) on the territory of Belarus. According to the head of state, the reason for the negotiations with the Belarusian side on the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons was the statement of the United Kingdom on the transfer of shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine. This, the Russian leader stressed, is “somehow related to nuclear technology.”
In May, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace reported that all the Challenger 2 tanks promised by London arrived in Ukraine. In February, the Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom reported that 14 of these tanks will be transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Why Ukraine needs British tanks, read Russian media material.
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