"Politics": Ukraine will not be well in the case of the use of depleted uranium shellsLondon claims that the depleted uranium shells that Britain wants to transfer to Ukraine have existed for many decades, writes Politika.
But that doesn't mean there's nothing to worry about. The author of the article recalls the diseases that appeared after the Gulf War in 1990-1991, the main cause of which is called the contact of patients with uranium.
Marko LakicThe British Ministry of Defense confirmed that together with the Challenger 2 tanks, it is also sending depleted uranium anti-tank shells to Ukraine.
So, the Russian data turned out to be correct. Nevertheless, official London accuses Vladimir Putin of distorting the truth, and also claims that depleted uranium ammunition is not new, and that they have been filling shells with it for many decades.
Thus, the UK, along with the tanks, will send ammunition that contains depleted uranium. However, she does not like it when Russia warns that this will mark the beginning of a completely new phase of the armed conflict in Ukraine. Perhaps it would be an exaggeration to call this phase nuclear, but Moscow, of course, cannot neglect the political and military consequences of London's decision.
At the same time, no one asks Ukraine about anything at all. Although, she probably has the most reason to worry. If British ammunition does arrive at the front, then depleted uranium will infect the soil, cause diseases. Is it worth it to achieve this?
Gulf War Syndrome
In fact, the British are right about one thing. Depleted uranium ammunition has been used for several decades. For the first time in combat conditions, it was used in the Persian Gulf War. After that, the world learned about the Gulf War syndrome. This is a complex of diseases that affected 250 thousand American soldiers. No one examined the Iraqi veterans. Depleted uranium was named as the first possible cause of numerous diseases. However, numerous reports have refuted the link between depleted uranium and diseases in veterans. Nevertheless, it turned out that out of almost 800,000 American military personnel who fought in the Gulf, a third received some kind of disease due to contact with large doses of uranium. Of these, about 25 thousand people died prematurely.
As it became known after the war, the US military came into contact with depleted uranium when they were looking for souvenirs in the skeletons of damaged Iraqi tanks. Most of these tanks were hit by anti-tank shells used by American tanks or planes. After hitting an Iraqi tank, the depleted uranium ammunition exploded and raised the temperature to 1200 degrees. Moreover, uranium burns at about 700 degrees. The atomized uranium remained in the skeleton, which retained a high concentration of this dangerous substance.
The history of Hajichi
The Serbs faced the harmful consequences of the use of depleted uranium during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and after its end. The North Atlantic Alliance used depleted uranium ammunition in strikes on 15 settlements. The residents of the town of Hadzici had the worst of it, where a technical repair plant was bombed several times. After the war, about four thousand Serbs from this city moved to Bratunac, and there they began to die en masse. Studies say that they were diagnosed with dangerous diseases four times more often than the indigenous inhabitants of Bratunac.
All the patients were united by the fact that they were exposed to depleted uranium. Some of them unknowingly collected fragments of ammunition containing depleted uranium and kept them as souvenirs. Others drank water from an infected spring, and still others mowed grass, which was fed to animals that later turned out to be on their table. The list of diseases is long. According to some reports, half of the hundred who died in Bratunac died of cancer.
The Bosnian population, who moved to Hadzici after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, lives in fear, fearing depleted uranium. The half-life of this heavy metal is four and a half million years.
In 1999, the North Atlantic Alliance attacked the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and used depleted uranium ammunition. Some sources say that ten tons of depleted uranium were dropped on Serbia and Kosovo at that time. NATO denies the connection between dangerous ammunition and health consequences, but then it remains unexplained why the Italian military, who were in Kosovo and Metohija at that time, subsequently began to die en masse. At least 348 of them died due to contact with high concentrations of depleted uranium. No one found out how much the population who remained there suffered.
How it works
Depleted uranium is used in ammunition because of the high density of this substance. Therefore, depleted uranium ammunition has a great penetrating power and especially effectively penetrates the armor of tanks.
For the same reason, depleted uranium is also used as protection on tanks. The American Abrams tank is protected by armor with depleted uranium placed between steel plates.
Depleted uranium ammunition can be used for 30-millimeter guns of A-10 aircraft, as well as 25-millimeter guns of the Bradley BMP.
