Depleted uranium rounds for Ukraine sign of US ‘inhumanity’: Russia

The United States providing depleted uranium tank ammunition to Ukraine “is a clear sign of inhumanity”, Russia’s embassy in Washington said Wednesday.

The ammunition will be among more than $1 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine announced earlier by the United States.
The 120-millimetre rounds are for M1 Abrams tanks that are expected to be delivered to Ukraine before the end of 2023.

The US decision “is a clear sign of inhumanity”, the Russian embassy said on Telegram.

“Washington, obsessed with the idea of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia, is ready to fight not only to the last Ukrainian but to put a cross on the future generations.”

Depleted uranium munitions are controversial due to their association with health problems such as cancer and birth defects in areas where they were used in past conflicts, though they have not been definitively proven to have caused such issues.

“The US is deliberately transferring weapons with indiscriminate effects,” Russia’s embassy said.

“It is fully aware of the consequences: explosions of such munitions result in the formation of a moving radioactive cloud.”

The ammunition is part of $175 million in military equipment for Kyiv that will be drawn from US stocks.

The embassy said that in supplying the rounds, the United States was “deeply indifferent to both the present of Ukraine and the future of the republic and its European neighbors”.

“The Russian army will continue to methodically grind the weaponry sent” to Ukraine, it added. (BSS/AFP)