On Saturday, Vladimir Putin spoke about the situation with the transfer of uranium-core shells from the UK to Ukraine.
He also acknowledged that the RF Armed Forces had bullets containing depleted uranium. “Of course Russia has something to answer. Without exaggeration, we have hundreds of thousands of such shells, we do not use them yet, ”Putin said on the broadcast of the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
According to him, this ammunition could pose a danger to humans “due to radiation dust.” Referring to studies in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia, where the US and NATO used depleted uranium shells, Putin reminded that cancer cases “increased more than once” there. He also said that the ammunition spent in Ukraine would “harm the planted areas”.
“How will they use it against people who are actually theirs? I mean that these residues will generate dust in the areas where they will be used, including polluting cultivated areas.” According to him, the use of such shells “contradicts the interests of normal logic.”
He also added that such weapons are among the “most harmful and dangerous to humans” types of weapons.
TNW in Belarus
In this context, Putin also warned that Russian tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) would be deployed on Belarusian territory.
According to him, at the request of the Belarusian side, the Russian Federation will deploy its tactical nuclear weapons in the republic – “just as the United States has long done this on the territory of the allied countries.”
The President of the Russian Federation added that the construction of a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons will soon be completed in Belarus, and that Belarusian aircraft and, possibly, Iskander missile systems transferred by the Russians to the Belarusian army will be equipped with them. .
“Even outside the context of these events, Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko has long been raising the question of the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory,” Putin said.
He reminded that the US nuclear weapons are located in Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and that there is a storage facility for nuclear weapons in Greece.
On March 22, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Moscow could transfer “real uranium” ammunition to Minsk if Britain sent shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine. He added that the Russian Federation’s reaction to the use of such shells by the Ukrainian Armed Forces would be “a terrible lesson for the entire planet.”
question about uranium
The UK Ministry of Defense has previously announced plans to supply Ukraine with depleted uranium core armor-piercing shells alongside the Challenger 2 tanks. According to the War Department, such shells “have nothing to do with nuclear weapons.”
The United States supported its allies and called these shells “traditional”. US authorities also claim, based on their own research, that depleted uranium poses no radioactive hazard.
Depleted uranium is used in armor-piercing sub-caliber projectiles, as well as in cartridges for aircraft weapons. The US military used them during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and during conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, primarily in Bosnia and Kosovo. Journalists from the British newspaper The Guardian wrote that the US military used about 822,000 depleted uranium munitions during these conflicts.
The use of depleted uranium shells is not regulated or prohibited by any contract or agreement. The UN considers such weapons “too new”. The United Nations Disarmament Research Institute argues that: depleted uranium “does not meet the legal definitions of nuclear, radioactive, toxic, chemical, or flammable weapons” because solid-core bullets are “not specifically designed to kill or injure by chemical or radioactive action.”
The residual damage from their use during hostilities is a controversial issue, there are different points of view regarding the consequences of the use of these shells on the environmental situation and human health.
Uranium itself is a highly toxic metal, but no more dangerous than mercury or arsenic when not enriched or consumed. The main danger of this type of uranium is the dust released from the ammunition and decays over time. In theory, it could contaminate the ground around it.
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that a person inhaling depleted uranium particles can increase their risk of developing leukemia by up to 2%.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) conducted research in Bosnia and Kosovo, in its view, firing depleted uranium shells “had no effect on the environment or population or fighters.”
Depleted uranium core ammunition was created in the USSR during the Cold War for the T-64, T-72, T-80 and T-90 tanks.
Environmental activists have repeatedly called for a ban on the use of depleted uranium. Also, Serbian Health Minister Danica Gruicic said on 24 March that such bullets cause an increase in cancer and advocated banning such weapons.
“The use of depleted uranium that is not purified on the border of Albania and Montenegro has not only led to the emergence of cancer, there is a clear increase in male infertility, all kinds of autoimmune diseases, pathological pregnancies. The emergence of certain mental disorders in children born during this period or from parents exposed to all these negative effects,” the Serbian official said.
in 2001 British radio station BBC reportedthat leading experts briefed members of the UK Parliament on the dangers of depleted uranium.
According to Professor Doug Rokke of the University of Jacksonville (Alabama), the US and British Defense Ministries’ denials that this type of ammunition is “hazardous” are “not true.” The scientist told reporters that “a significant part of the uranium that enters the lungs dissolves and enters the bloodstream.”