The Kremlin said on Thursday that the United States would have to answer for the “very sad consequences” of its decision to provide Ukraine with depleted uranium munitions, Reuters informed.
On Wednesday, the White House announced that it would supply Ukraine with armour-piercing shells with depleted uranium for Abrams tanks. Britain has previously sent similar projectiles.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that NATO’s use of such shells during the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 led to a sharp increase in cancer cases.
“These consequences are also felt by subsequent generations of those who somehow came into contact or were in areas where these weapons were used.”
Mr. Peskov also warned that this could happen again in Ukraine. The use of depleted uranium is the subject of fierce debate today. The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons claims that swallowing or inhaling even the dust of depleted uranium can cause cancer and other birth defects.
However, a report by the United Nations Environment Programme on the effects of depleted uranium on Serbia and Montenegro, the former Yugoslavia, found “no significant and widespread contamination.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors UN nuclear safety, states that studies conducted in the former Yugoslavia, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon have shown that “the existence of depleted uranium residues dispersed in the environment does not pose a radiological hazard to the population of the affected regions.”
However, some Serbian politicians who disagree with this statement report an increase in the incidence of malignant neoplasms and the related mortality.
According to a 2002 report conducted by the British Royal Society, the risks to the kidneys and other organs from the use of depleted uranium ammunition turned out to be low for both soldiers and people living in a military conflict zone.
The UK warns that inhaling such an amount of depleted uranium dust, which could lead to injury, will be difficult.
