War in Ukraine: what is depleted uranium in weapons that London promises to deliver to kyiv

On Monday, British Deputy Defense Minister Annabel Goldi announced that her country intends to supply Ukraine with munitions containing them Impoverished uranium Which ones are they “very effective destroy tanks and modern armored vehicles”.

The announcement fell like a rock in Russia, where Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned it would mean a “serious” escalation of the conflict.

The crossing continued on Tuesday when the British Defense Ministry accused Moscow of “misinform” for saying that depleted uranium ammunition he will send to Ukraine along with a tank crew it has a “nuclear component”.

London states that “the British Army has used depleted uranium in its armor-piercing shells for decades” and notes that “it is a standard component and has nothing to do with nuclear weapons or capabilities”.

“Russia knows this, but is deliberately trying to misinform,” the source said.

In particular, London confirmed that, together with a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks, it will supply Ukraine with “ammunition, including armor-piercing shells containing depleted uranium”.

These shells “are very effective for defeating tanks and other modern armored vehicles,” they explained.

The spokesperson added that several scientific studies have considered that “any impact on personal health and the environment from the use of depleted uranium munitions is likely it would be low“.

Speaking to the BBC, a former British Army tank commander and chemical weapons expert Colonel Hamish of Breton-Gordon, ensures that those shells used by the Challenger 2 contain only “traces” of depleted uranium.

This soldier considered “ridiculous” suggest they are somehow related to nuclear weapons, which use enriched uranium.

Is that so? Is depleted uranium harmless? When was it used? What is that?

Some answers

It is true that depleted uranium is used in arsenals hit by artillery and armored to increase its power.

It is also true that depleted uranium ammunition They are not nuclear weapons but the history of its use is alarming.

Depleted uranium is a dense metal derived from the enrichment of natural uranium as nuclear fuel.

it is still radioactive, but at a much lower level than the source material. It is used in armor-piercing shells and bombs to increase their penetration ability.

Depleted uranium is used with the abundant waste from nuclear power plantsan effective way of recycle atomic waste.

But its use it would be anything but harmless to health.

Its use was discovered later a significant number of American soldiers who participated in the Gulf War against Iraq began to die of leukemia.

He Hodgkin’s lymphoma it took more American soldiers than killed Iraqis.

There are other precedents: Italy, Somalia, Bosnia…

The 2002 chronicles report the birth of children with serious genetic malformations, whose parents were Italian soldiers, who in Bosnia and Somalia were in contact with weapons powered by depleted uranium.

Those births resembled similar cases with babies born to Iraq’s civilian population and among the children of US soldiers who fought in the Gulf in 1991.

In the early 2000s, RAI has published a documentary on the birth of children with hermaphroditism, without digestive system, without brain, without fingers, without arms, with mouth attached to ear, with motor problems, severe skeletal defects, brain lesions…

In the same period, the newspaper La Repubblica reported the case of the municipality of Escalaplano, in Sardinia.

There were also birth records of children with genetic malformations. Why right there?

Near Escalaplano there is the military range of Salto di Quirra in Perdasdefoguwhich serves to test NATO weapons experimentally.

The Italian Defense Ministry denies that depleted uranium shells were fired at the firing ranges.

The controversy continues to this day.

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