The US government will send to Ukraine armor-piercing depleted uranium munitions designed to penetrate armor, according to a document seen by Reuters and two of its sources.
The shells, intended mainly to destroy Russian tanks and other armored vehicles, will be part of a new package of military aid from Washington to Kiev which is expected to be presented within the coming week.
They can be fired from US Abrams tanks, dozens of which – according to a source briefed on the matter – will be delivered to the Ukrainian army within weeks.
One of Reuters’ sources in the US government estimated that this package will have a value of 240 to 375 million dollarsdepending on what it will include, which has yet to be finalized.
The White House did not immediately respond when the agency asked for comment on the information.
Britain already sent such missiles to Ukraine earlier this year, but deliveries of depleted uranium shells from USA are expected to cause reactions. They will follow Washington’s decision to send cluster munitions to the Ukrainian military, despite concerns about the long-term dangers the munitions pose to civilians.
The use of depleted uranium munitions is hotly contested. Their opponents, such as the International Alliance for the Prohibition of Uranium Weapons in particular, complain that they pose huge risks to human health, as inhalation or ingestion of depleted uranium dust can cause cancers and very serious reproductive problems.
A byproduct of the uranium enrichment process, depleted uranium is used to make munitions because its tremendous density allows it to penetrate armor and ignite. This metal is radioactive, but much less radioactive than natural uranium, yet its particles remain radioactive for much longer, up to 700 million years.
The US military used such munitions en masse in the 1990 and 2003 Gulf Wars, as well as in 1999 when NATO bombed the former Yugoslavia.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates, citing studies in the former Yugoslavia, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon, that depleted uranium residues in the environment “do not pose a radiological risk to the population”. This conclusion remains controversial.
This radioactive material will be added anyway to the already titanic work that will need to be done post-war in Ukraine for the removal of dangerous materials. Much of the country is littered with unexploded ordnance, including cluster cluster munitions and millions of landmines.
The information that Washington was considering the possibility of sending depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine was published in July by the Wall Street Journal.
Recent packages of equipment destined for Ukraine announced by the US Department of Defense included ammunition for artillery, missiles for air defense systems and armored fighting vehicles. Reuters reports that it was unable to ascertain what else the new military aid package will contain, beyond tanks and depleted uranium missiles.
Funding for the package is secured thanks to a special presidential prerogative (the so-called Presidential Drawdown Authority), which allows deliveries of military goods and services without congressional approval in emergency situations. The material will come from surplus US military stockpiles.
The value of US military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded its territory in late February 2022 exceeds $43 billion.
Source: News Beast
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