The UK will send armor-piercing depleted uranium shells to Ukraine for use on its Challenger 2 main battle tanks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that if the UK supplies Ukraine with armor-piercing depleted uranium shells, Moscow would be “forced to react”.
Putin on Tuesday responded to news that British Defense Secretary Annabel Goldie had confirmed that depleted uranium munitions were part of a military aid package sent to Ukraine along with Challenger 2 main battle tanks.
“The United Kingdom … announced not only the delivery of tanks to Ukraine, but also shells with depleted uranium. If that happens, Russia will be forced to respond,” Putin told reporters after talks with China’s leader Xi Jinping at the Kremlin.
“If all this happens, Russia must respond accordingly, since the West collectively is already starting to use weapons with a nuclear component,” Putin said without elaborating.
In response to questions about ammunition, Goldie said Monday that “in addition to our granting of a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, ammunition including armor-piercing shells containing depleted uranium will also be provided.”
The ammunition is “highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armored vehicles,” she said.
Depleted uranium is a by-product of the nuclear enrichment process used to make nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. Its heaviness lends itself to use in armor-piercing rounds, as it helps them penetrate steel easily.
The United Nations Environment Program has described such munitions as “chemically and radiologically toxic heavy metal”.
(Al Jazeera)
Britain’s Defense Ministry dismissed Putin’s warning on Tuesday, saying the armor-piercing shells had been standard equipment for decades and had “nothing to do with nuclear weapons or capabilities”.
The ministry accused Russia of willful disinformation for describing the munitions as a “weapon with a nuclear component.”
“Russia knows this, but is deliberately trying to misinform,” the ministry said.
The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, said Wednesday Putin presented the munitions as “escalating” to deter Western security assistance, even though the shells contained no fissile or radiological material.
#Putin framed the western supply exhausted #Uranium ammo too #Ukraine as a significant escalation to support intelligence operations aimed at deterring Western security aid to Ukraine and shifting the burden of negotiations to the West. https://t.co/uKu57EPD6V https://t.co/wZkkniNhP5
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) March 22, 2023
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the UK’s decision leaves fewer steps ahead of a possible “nuclear clash” between Russia and the West.
“One more step has been taken and there are fewer and fewer left,” he told reporters in remarks quoted by Russian news agencies.
Russian politicians and commentators have made a series of hawkish remarks since invading Ukraine last year, implying that Moscow would be ready – if necessary – to deploy its vast nuclear arsenal.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), an anti-nuclear organization, condemned Britain’s decision to send the munitions, calling it an “additional environmental and health disaster for those living through the conflict” because of more toxic or radioactive dust can be released.
“CND has repeatedly urged the UK government to impose an immediate moratorium on the use of depleted uranium weapons and to fund long-term studies into their health and environmental impact,” CND secretary-general Kate Hudson said, according to Agence France. Press.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the plan the “Yugoslavia scenario” and said the munitions cause cancer and infect the environment. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the plan shows Britain “has lost its bearings”.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of Britain’s Royal Tank Regiment, said it was “reckless” for Putin to “assume Britain was sending nuclear material to Ukraine”.
He said depleted uranium is a common ingredient in tank shells, possibly even used by Russia.
“Putin’s suggestion that they are some kind of nuclear weapon is crazy,” de Bretton-Gordon told The Associated Press. “Depleted uranium is completely inert. There is no way you can create a nuclear reaction or a nuclear explosion with depleted uranium.”
In a joint statement at the end of their meeting in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin and Xi warned against any steps that could push the Ukraine conflict into an “uncontrollable phase”, adding clearly that there can be no winners in a nuclear war.