Britain on Wednesday defended its decision to supply Ukraine with depleted uranium weapons, a day after Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin falsely claimed the material had a “nuclear component”.
The British government has confirmed that it will supply Ukraine with armor-piercing shells containing depleted uranium, in addition to his Challenger 2 tanks, using them. Depleted uranium is a standard component in conventional anti-armour weapons that NATO countries have used for decades, and Britain said in a statement that the munitions it supplied had nothing to do with nuclear weapons.
The density of depleted uranium makes it an effective material for piercing heavy armor on the battlefield and is used by many armies. Among them are those of Russia, which upgraded its main battle tank to add the ability to fire depleted uranium shells, state news agency Tass reported in 2018.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told reporters on Wednesday that there was “no nuclear escalation,” adding: “The only country in the world that talks about nuclear issues is Russia.”
Uranium, a heavy metal, must be enriched in order to be used for nuclear purposes. Depleted uranium, which is about two and a half times denser than steel, is a by-product of that enrichment, still radioactive but at a much lower level.
Putin’s false allegation came in a statement Tuesday at his summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who US officials say urging Russia not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Depleted uranium has been used by militaries as far back as the 1990 Gulf War, so “this is nothing new and nothing unusual,” said Stuart Crawford, a defense analyst and former military officer in Britain. Mr Crawford said Russia uses depleted uranium in some of its munitions, including 125-millimeter tank shells.
It is certainly not a “nuclear component” as Putin described it, he said.
“To say this raises the bar or escalates the conflict because of the nuclear aspect is just nonsense,” Crawford said.
There have long been questions about the use of depleted uranium in some munitions and armor as outside groups have raised environmental and safety concerns. a Report 2022 of the United Nations Environment Program identified depleted uranium as a risk in the war in Ukraine, saying that while it does not emit radiation that can penetrate healthy skin, it “has the potential to cause radiation damage if inhaled or ingested”, meaning can happen when the material is pulverized on impact.
The Pentagon has that too considered safe for depleted uraniumalthough after the US military used it in Iraq, some activists and others linked it to birth defects and cancers. Numerous studies have been conducted into a possible relationship, without hard conclusions.
In 2013, the British Ministry of Defence downplayed any health or environmental risks related to the use of depleted uranium. A paper states that while the dust generated on impact can sometimes pose a health hazard, “all research to date indicates that these conditions are extremely unlikely to occur, and that if they do will affect only very small groups who are at much greater risk from the other dangers associated with armed conflict.”
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said in a briefing Tuesday that, to his knowledge, the United States has not supplied Ukraine with munitions containing depleted uranium.
Putin’s comments appeared unrelated to environmental or health risks, but accused the West of escalating the war by sending depleted uranium weapons and said Russia “will have to respond accordingly”. That turned out to be a veiled threat to handle Moscow’s nuclear arsenal in Ukraine, which Putin sometimes warned against during the war.
US officials have said they have not seen any attempt by Russia to move or use its nuclear weapons and believe the risk of their use is low. worries linger.