UK confirms shipments of depleted-uranium munitions to Ukraine
Britain’s Armed Forces Minister James Heappey has told Parliament the government has already started shipments of depleted-uranium (DU) munitions to Ukraine.
Heappey on Tuesday confirmed the DU munitions for the UK-made Challenger 2 tank had already arrived in Ukraine. “We have sent thousands of rounds of Challenger 2 ammunition to Ukraine, including depleted uranium armor-piercing rounds.”
London has vowed to send Kiev a total of 14 of the tanks.
The minister said the weapons “are now under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).” The UK Defense Ministry, he said, “does not monitor the locations from where DU rounds are fired by the AFU in Ukraine.”
In March, British and American advisers oversaw special training for Ukrainian troops on the DU rounds. .
Asked whether the government has a responsibility to “help clear up depleted uranium rounds” used in Ukraine after the war, the minister said it has “no obligation” to do so. He underscored “Ukraine's immediate needs.”
While Heappey has claimed the health and environmental risks posed by depleted uranium are “low,” citing the “monitoring of UK military veterans” performed for a government study in 2007, more recent research suggests the munitions could carry health hazards after all.
The United States used DU ammunition heavily during its two wars in Iraq, with some researchers saying the weapons could be linked to a spate of birth defects later observed in the country.
According to Doug Weir, an expert with the Conflict and Environment Observatory, when DU penetrators strike a target, “they fragment and burn, generating chemically toxic and radioactive DU particulate that poses an inhalational risk to people.”
The Russian Embassy in London reacted to the news, saying Britain “will not be able to avoid responsibility for the consequences of the use of depleted uranium ammunition that they supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
Moscow has repeatedly warned against foreign arms shipments to Kiev, not least the British DU munitions, with the Russian Foreign Ministry condemning London for “absolute recklessness, irresponsibility and impunity.”
Last month, the Russian military warned the use of uranium shells is likely to “cause irreparable harm” to the health of Ukrainians and inflict “tremendous economic damage to the agro-industrial complex” in the region.
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