GENEVA: Depleted uranium weapon supplies to Ukraine will show once again how hypocritical the West has been toward the nation, a Russian di...
GENEVA: Depleted uranium weapon supplies to Ukraine will show once again how hypocritical the West has been toward the nation, a Russian diplomat said on Thursday.
"The issue warrants the most careful consideration at multilateral venues that discuss humanitarian problems and arms control, including the Conference on Disarmament," Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Geneva office Gennady Gatilov said in a statement published by the Russian diplomatic mission. "Supplying depleted uranium weapons to Ukraine or worse their reckless use by the Kiev regime will be yet another manifestation of the West’s hypocritical attitude to residents of this country who will be put at more risk," Gatilov emphasized.
To Gatilov, what he said was a reckless attitude of the United States and Great Britain stemmed from the fact that "these countries never allowed the use of those in their jurisdictions." This is why Washington and London used shells of this type "exclusively in their military aggressions against countries lying hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away from their borders," he underscored
People in the areas where depleted uranium munitions were used run a substantial risk of developing cancer or having children born with defects, the Russian envoy said. However, Washington and London think that they can ignore the consequences in the longer term if such weapons are used in far-off countries or regions, Gatilov said as he referred to the use of depleted uranium weapons in the Persian Gulf, Serbia and Iraq.
Potential weapons supplies
In a statement published last week, Baroness Annabelle Goldie, UK Minister of State for Defense, wrote in response to an inquiry from a member of the House of Lords that the British government would send Ukraine munitions containing depleted uranium and featuring enhanced effectiveness against armored vehicles. Moreover, the UK Defense Ministry described depleted uranium as "a standard component" of armor-piercing shells, which it has used for decades
Commenting on Britain’s decision, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow would have to respond accordingly since "the collective West is already mulling using weapons with a nuclear component."
The Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom warned London against sending such munitions to Kiev. The embassy stressed in a statement that the step was fraught with the risk of further escalation and the use of such ammunition would negatively affect the health of local residents.
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