Radioactive cloud threatens Europe after depleted uranium shells destroyed in Ukraine

A radioactive cloud is threatening Europe as a result of the destruction of depleted uranium munitions in Ukraine, Secretary of Russia's Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said at a meeting in Syktyvkar.

"Their destruction led to the appearance of a radioactive cloud that is now heading towards Western Europe. An increase in radiation levels has already been reported in Poland," Patrushev said, RIA Novosti reports.

Patrushev also claimed that Washington "develops and uses chemical and biological weapons," including in Ukraine.

James Heappey, UK's Minister of State for the Armed Forces, said in late April that London had shipped thousands of Challenger 2 munitions to Kyiv, including armour-piercing depleted uranium shells.

Moscow concluded that the West proceeded to the use of weapons with a nuclear component.

Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov then warned London and those who would use depleted uranium ammunition about consequences.

British officials were quick to respond by saying that London had been using depleted uranium shells for decades. Therefore, such shells have nothing to do with nuclear weapons, they added.

In mid-May, the Ternopil authorities said that reports about the destruction of an ammunition depot with depleted uranium projectiles were fake. The head of the regional administration Volodymyr Trush said that no ammunition exploded during the rocket attack. There was no depleted uranium in Ternopil, he added. 

He attributed the pungent smell in the air to burning plastic. Reports about an increased level of radiation in Khmelnitsky were also denied.

At the same time, the Russian Defence Ministry said that the Russian forces struck ammo depots with Western weapons in Ternopil.

Reference:

Natural uranium contains as much as 0.0054 percent of isotope U-234, 0.71 percent of U-235, and 99.28 percent of U-238, which is the main component of depleted uranium. The United States used uranium munitions during the 1991 war in Iraq. International organisations do not recognise depleted uranium shells as chemical weapons. The use of such weapons is not regulated in any form either.