The Pentagon announced that the United States would supply Ukraine with munitions containing depleted uranium.
Britain has already announced this spring that it will supply Ukraine with grenades containing depleted uranium for use in tanks. It was met with warnings from Russia.
When this ammunition hits the target, a large part of the uranium turns into dust and ignites. The crew members of the armored vehicles were killed by shrapnel and burn injuries.
DU is also chemically toxic and can cause serious damage to kidneys and other vital organs. Radioactivity is also carcinogenic and remains for a long time in the dust on the battlefield.
United State Ministry of Defense The United States announced on Wednesday that it would provide depleted uranium ammunition that Ukraine could use with the Abrams tanks it had already promised.
Norway has not
Such weapons have significant negative consequences, Tom Roseth, director of the Intelligence Department at the Defense Staff School, tells VG.
– As far as I know, Norway does not have such ammunition. We have cluster munitions that have not been destroyed, but they are stored. As with cluster munitions and mines, they have negative consequences for civilians.
He goes on to say that the United States and Great Britain provide such weapons because they believe their military value outweighs the potential downside to the environment and civilians.
warning
The Russian Embassy in Washington reacted strongly to the Pentagon news.
– It seems clear that Washington, with the idea of inflicting a “strategic defeat,” is ready to fight not only to the last Ukrainian, but also to end entire generations, says the embassy in the statement published on the Telegram service.
They also wrote that the decision was “a sign of inhumanity”.
Last March, it was announced that Britain would supply Ukraine with missiles containing depleted uranium. Russia said at the time that it would respond.
If that happens, Russia will have to respond, given that the West has now collectively begun to use weapons with a nuclear component, President Vladimir Putin said.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also warned the British against sending such munitions to Ukraine.
– He said that a new step is being taken now, and there will be fewer and fewer again, indicating that the danger of using nuclear weapons is now increasing, in his view.
Bigger weapon pack
The United States is also providing more air defenses, artillery, anti-tank weapons and other equipment. The total value of the new package is $175 million.
Depleted uranium ammunition has been used in a number of wars. After the Iraq war, the clean-up job continued for several years. US military forces used armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium in Iraq in 1991 and 2003.
It has been associated with the emergence of deadly cancer. A report issued by the University of Basra in 2007 showed that the percentage of children who died of cancer in 2005 was 60 percent higher than it was in 1989 before the first Gulf War. Its use has also been linked to more babies being born with deformities and cancer.
absence of security
Then the British Ministry of Defense refused to consider depleted uranium used in anti-tank weapons as a carcinogen.
Harvard university It states that depleted uranium is a carcinogen. report from Global Health Organization But about the use of such munitions in Kosovo, she says, no such link has been proven, and that soldiers, rather than the civilian population, may be greatly affected.
-Harvard study sounds good. Rosyth concludes that they had some reservations about how much damage could be documented from depleted uranium.
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