UK ‘taking steps to nuclear war’ Vladimir Putin warns over depleted uranium plans for Ukraine

Vladimir Putin warns Moscow will be ‘forced to react’ if the UK gives Ukraine armour piercing ammunition which contains depleted uranium.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands after delivering a joint statement following their talks at the Kremlin. Picture: AFP.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Britain was taking “steps towards a nuclear collision” and Moscow would be “forced to react” if the UK gives Ukraine armour piercing ammunition which contains depleted uranium.

“The United Kingdom … announced not only the supply of tanks to Ukraine, but also shells with depleted uranium. If this happens, Russia will be forced to react,” Mr Putin told reporters after talks at the Kremlin with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Mr Putin spoke after UK defence minister, Annabel Goldie told parliament Britain was sending Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, “including armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium”.

“Such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles,” she said.

Depleted uranium is a by-product of the nuclear enriching process used to make nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. It is around 60 per cent as radioactive as natural uranium.

Its heaviness lends itself for use in armour piercing rounds as it helps them easily penetrate steel and it has been part of the armoury for Challengers and other western tanks in conflicts including the Iraq war.

But the United Nations Environment Program has described it as a “chemically and radiologically toxic heavy metal.”

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping at a reception following their talks at the Kremlin. Picture: AFP.

The announcement by Baroness Goldie caused fury in Moscow, where Mr Putin and Mr Xi are holding three days of talks.

Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, also condemned the move and raised the prospect of the Ukraine conflict turning into a nuclear confrontation.

“Another step has been taken, and there are fewer and fewer left,” he said, according to The London Times.

Russia has warned in the past that it would regard the provision of depleted uranium shells to Ukraine as being equivalent to using “dirty nuclear bombs”.

However, in an encouraging move, Mr Xi and Mr Putin also agreed that nuclear war must “never” take place.

“There can be no winners in a nuclear war, and it must never be unleashed,” the leaders said in a declaration.

Anti-nuclear organisation CND condemned Baroness Goldie’s decision to send the ammunition, calling it an “additional environmental and health disaster for those living through the conflict” as toxic or radioactive dust can be released on impact.

The munitions were used in conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq, and were suspected of being a possible cause of “Gulf War syndrome,” a collection of debilitating symptoms suffered by veterans of the 1990-91 war.

Researchers from the UK’s University of Portsmouth tested sufferers to examine levels of residual depleted uranium in their bodies and say their 2021 study “conclusively” proved that none of them were exposed to significant amounts of depleted uranium.

With AFP