DISINFO: British uranium shells have created a radioactive cloud in Ukraine and Europe
SUMMARY
The United States manipulates its allies into providing "help" to other nations that results in harm to the recipients. The destruction of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine has created a radioactive cloud that has blown into Western Europe. An increase in radiation has been detected in Poland. The UK supplied this type of ammunition to Ukraine, intended for British-made Challenger tanks.
The use of depleted uranium ammunition poses a long-term environmental and public health threat, according to studies in countries such as Serbia and Iraq, where it has been used in the past by Western allies.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin narrative claiming that weapons delivered to Ukraine for the defence of its territory will turn into a disaster for Western populations due to radiation issues. The article also claims that this is somehow a result of American manipulation, denying the agency of the UK.
On the night of May 12-13, a warehouse in Khmelnitsky, western Ukraine, was bombed by a Russian drone. According to satellite data from the Planet tool, a storage warehouse for old Soviet munitions was hit. However, it is impossible to confirm that the weapons destroyed contained depleted uranium. The GeoConfirmed account believes, for example, that it is impossible to assess what exploded.
Polish and Ukrainian sensors did note an increase in radioactivity of Bismuth-214 on their territories. However, it is not proof that a cloud of depleted uranium has moved towards Poland, on the opposite it seems to be a natural phenomenon. Firstly, because uranium is not associated with bismuth-214. Secondly because rain which has been observed in the region and it naturally raises such measures on detectors by such amplitudes. Independent nuclear monitoring specialists in France and Ukraine consider no evidence of a radioactive cloud linked to a warehouse explosion has been observed so far. Read the full debunk on TF1 (in French).
The West supports Ukraine with military and financial aid for the country’s efficient self-defence, in accordance with the UN Charter Article 51, to stop Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. Some NATO member states provide Ukraine with military assistance to help Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s attack, but they are not involved in direct fighting. The United Kingdom delivered to Ukraine depleted uranium shells and even though Russia has and uses similar ammunition, it was described in Russian outlets as a crime against humanity, or a genocide.
"They are not meant to poison people. They are used because of their capability to pierce armour," says Dr Marina Miron, from Kings College London. See also this article from the BBC in which Former British Army tank commander - and chemical weapons expert - Col Hamish de Breton-Gordon states that "depleted uranium rounds used by Challenger 2 tanks contained only trace elements of depleted uranium. He added it was "laughable" to suggest depleted uranium rounds were in any way linked to nuclear weapons, which uses enriched uranium".
In 2007, the UN General Assembly launched a study to find out the health effects of depleted uranium weapons. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) found no significant poisoning was caused by exposure to depleted uranium.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims Radioactive substances brought to Ukraine could be used to make a "dirty bomb", that Western tanks given to Ukraine could deliver nuclear warheads, that 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, and that Ukraine is going to use a dirty bomb to accuse Russia of using tactical nuclear weapons.