US President Joe Biden’s administration will transfer controversial armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine for the first time.
This is stated in the document, with which the publication got acquainted Reuters and separately certified by two US officials.
“Projectiles that can help destroy Russian tanks are part of a new package of military aid to Ukraine. It will be released next week. Ammunition may be fired from American Abrams tanks, which, according to a knowledgeable person, should be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.” – the material says.
Journalists recalled that “although Great Britain sent ammunition with depleted uranium to Ukraine earlier this year, this will be the first delivery of ammunition to the United States.”
The move is likely to be controversial as it follows an earlier decision by the Biden administration to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions despite concerns about the weapons’ dangers to civilians.
“The use of depleted uranium munitions is hotly debated, with opponents such as the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons arguing that consuming or inhaling depleted uranium dust poses dangerous health risks, including cancer and birth defects.
Depleted uranium, a byproduct of uranium enrichment, is used in munitions because its extreme density gives projectiles the ability to easily penetrate armor and ignite spontaneously in a burning cloud of dust and metal.” – the material says.
The US used depleted uranium munitions during the 1990 and 2003 Gulf wars and during the 1999 NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia.
The International Atomic Energy Agency notes that studies in the former Yugoslavia, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon “have shown that the existence of depleted uranium remnants dispersed in the environment does not pose a radiological hazard to the population of the affected regions.”
Nevertheless, the radioactive material could exacerbate Ukraine’s large-scale postwar cleanup problem. Parts of the country are already littered with cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance, as well as hundreds of thousands of landmines.
It will be recalled that the USA allocated a new aid package to Ukraine worth 250 million dollars.
The Pentagon also ordered AMRAAM missiles from Raytheon for Ukraine.
In April, it became known that Britain sent shells with depleted uranium to Ukraine.
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Source: Ukraine to receive first shells with depleted uranium from the US – Reuters
