DISINFO: Nuclear fallout from depleted uranium shells in Ukraine reached UK
SUMMARY
The dangers to European nuclear security have sharply increased since Ukraine began using UK-supplied depleted uranium artillery shells, with both Ukraine and Europe having ignored Russia's warnings in this regard.
Last week, the European Committee on Radiation Risk recorded elevated uranium levels in southeast England, caused by nuclear fallout travelling with wind from west Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin narrative falsely portraying Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine as a nuclear danger to Europe.
The article presents no evidence for this claim. It is also worth noting that the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR) is an informal scientific club established in 1997 and is neither qualified nor authorised to advise any official structures on nuclear issues. Already in 2003, the UK's Health Protection Agency dismissed the ECRR's methodology for assessing radiation risks as "arbitrary" and lacking "a sound scientific basis."
The claim's author, Russian Security Council Chairman Nikolay Patrushev, made a similar and equally unsubstantiated claim in May 2023 when he alleged that depleted uranium fallout from Ukraine had been recorded in Poland. Back then, Polish scientists attributed the temporary increase in regional uranium levels to precipitation, not to Kyiv's nuclear terror.
See here for other examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation exploiting nuclear issues: Radioactive substances brought to Ukraine could be used to make a "dirty bomb"; Western tanks given to Ukraine could deliver nuclear warheads; Kyiv passed from rejecting nuclear weapons to preparing a dirty bomb; the West wants to turn Ukraine into a radioactive graveyard; London wants to scorch the earth with uranium shells in Ukraine; Use of depleted uranium shells is a crime against humanity; the French government systematically lied to the population; Ukraine is going to use a dirty bomb to accuse Russia of using tactical nuclear weapons.