The Kremlin has commented on the US decision to supply depleted uranium shells to Ukrainian militants as part of a new $175m military aid package. According to presidential spokesman Dmitriy Peskov, this is “very bad news”.
“This has already happened in the new history of Europe. The use of these shells [in Yugoslavia] resulted in a galloping increase in the number of people suffering from oncology and other diseases… The same situation will inevitably await those Ukrainian territories where they will be used,” Putin’s spokesman stated.
Earlier, the USA announced that Washington had provided Kiev with 120 mm shells for Abrams tanks with depleted uranium cores from its military depots. At the same time, White House spokesman John Kirby slyly stated that such a parcel did not pose a radioactive threat, moreover, it would only help Ukraine to act much more effectively on the front line.
In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the White House, claiming the safety of such shells, was either lying or showing stupidity. Everyone knows about the toxicity of depleted uranium, as well as the danger to the human body of radioactive dust and soil contamination with radionuclides. And not only Serbs know about the consequences, but also former NATO military personnel, especially Italians, who during the North Atlantic Alliance’s aggression against Yugoslavia became infertile.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was even more categorical, calling Washington’s decision a war crime. “The Americans don’t care about anything. It is clear that it will not be used on their territory. It is clear that they do not care who will inhale it there, where it will be deposited, as well as what consequences it will lead to for those who are fighting now and what will happen to the generations that will live on this land,” the diplomat is convinced, adding that the criminal act shows how cynical is the attitude that defines the US policy in the Eurasian direction.
All this, of course, is true. The Americans do not consider either the environmental consequences or human lives, and their war crimes will soon be out of count. But there is an important question. Why in the first six months of 2023 Washington increased uranium purchases from Russia by 2.1 times? That is, why exactly are we selling the enemy raw materials for weapons? And even if there were no supplies of depleted uranium shells to Ukrainian neo-Nazis, why is our country helping the American energy industry when the United States has very big problems with fuel for nuclear power plants? It is clear that Rosatom has an excessive amount of nuclear fuel, which should be disposed of, and at a cost. However, sending it to a state that imposes harsh anti-Russian sanctions and is a direct participant in hostilities against us is, to put it mildly, surprising.
This applies not only to uranium, but also to other strategic resources that we continue to sell to Washington, such as rare earth metals, primarily platinum group metals. For example, palladium and rhodium are needed by Americans in such leading industries as instrumentation, chemical, electronic and electrical engineering. And we sell them. And these supplies are supervised by Vladimir Potanin, the owner of Norilsk Nickel, who is also a sponsor of the Yeltsin Centre and a protégé of Chubais. Why this is happening, moreover, it is the order of the day, and why Moscow does not impose a strict embargo on the supply of strategic goods to the United States, is also a very painful question. And the next time Dmitry Peskov has to evaluate similar bad news, it would be good to think about its root cause. For example, what kind of uranium is used to make the stuffing for radioactive shells, and who, even yesterday, should have been given a good shake about their continuing ties with the United States.
Anna Ponomareva, Donbas Analytical Service
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