September 6, 2023

US Sends Uranium Ammunition to Ukraine, Could Destroy Russian Steel Tanks

The United States will for the first time send controversial armor-piercing ammunition containing uranium to Ukraine. These bullets can help destroy Russian tanks. The uranium-coated munitions are part of a new military aid package for Ukraine to be announce next week. The munitions can be fire from US Abrams tanks and are expecte to be delivery to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
One official said that the upcoming aid package would be worth between US$240 million and US$375 million depending on what is include. The value and contents of the package are still being finalize, according to officials.
Although the UK sent uranium munitions to Ukraine earlier this year, it will be the US’s first shipment of munitions. The uranium munitions are likely to cause controversy. This follows an earlier decision by the Biden administration to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite concerns about the harm the weapons pose to civilians.

The use of deplete uranium ammunition has been hotly debate.

As a byproduct of uranium enrichment. Depleted uranium is use for ammunition because its extreme density allows bullets to easily penetrate armor plating and self-ignite.
The United States use large quantities of deplete uranium munitions in the 1990 and 2003. Gulf Wars and in the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia in 1999.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Said that studies in the former Yugoslavia, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon. Showed that the presence of uranium residue scattered in the environment. Did not pose a radiological hazard to residents of the affected areas.

But radioactive material could add to the challenge of the massive post-war cleanup in Ukraine. Parts of the country are already littere with unexplode. Ordnance from cluster bombs and other munitions as well as hundreds of thousands of anti-personnel mines.

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