US refuses to say if Ukraine will receive toxic depleted uranium ammunition for Bradleys

New Delhi: The White House declined to say whether the US will provide Ukraine with depleted-uranium ammunition for Bradley infantry fighting vehicles despite having concrete evidence showing that the weapon has the potential to cause cancer and birth defects.

According to the transcript of a press briefing published after Wednesday, an unnamed senior Biden administration official did not say whether the US will provide Ukraine with depleted-uranium ammunition for Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and depleted-uranium armour for M1 Abrams tanks that are part of a recently announced $2.85 billion military assistance to Ukraine.

“I am not going to get into the technical specifics on either platform,” the senior official said at a special media briefing.

Amid speculation surfaced about the US intention to provide Ukraine with depleted-uranium ammunition for Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, Moscow has warned against arming the machines with rounds tipped with depleted uranium, which it would consider amounting to nuclear proliferation.

Speaking at the OSCE Forum for Security and Cooperation, the head of the Russian delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Konstantin Gavrilov warned US and NATO countries of grave consequences, saying that any such a provocative move will force Moscow to undertake harsh retaliatory actions.

“We know that the Leopard 2 tank and Bradley and Marder infantry fighting vehicles are armed with uranium-core armour-piercing projectiles, the use of which leads to contamination of the area, as happened in Yugoslavia and Iraq,” he had said.

Experts have flagged concern over the risk of irreversible health impacts like cancer and ecological damage, saying that the technical specifics of these weapons could have adverse consequences for Ukrainians.

“These anti-tank rounds also happen to be radioactive, extremely toxic and linked with a variety of birth defects, cancers, and other illnesses, most dramatically in Iraq, where doctors reported a spike in birth defects and cancers since the Gulf War when the U.S. fired nearly a million depleted uranium rounds, and the 2003 invasion of that country,” according to The Intercept.

“[Uranium] binds avidly to bio-molecules including DNA,”. “Where [uranium] is used in munitions (bullets and bombs) to penetrate hardened targets (using its high density) the munition may shatter and since [uranium] is pyrophoric, catch fire and burn, producing oxide particles which are partially soluble and, thus, potentially a source of systemic [uranium] if inhaled.” Uranium particles may remain embedded in the land where these rounds were fired, too, presenting a possible environmental hazard years later, Keith Baverstock, a radiobiologist at the University of Eastern Finland, former World Health Organization researcher, and longtime scholar of depleted uranium arms and their effects, quoted as saying by The Intercept.

Despite our popular associations with uranium, “the biggest problem there is metal pollution, not radiation,” explained Nickolai Denisov. Still, pollution by heavy metals is dangerous and long term, hence transparency in these matters is indeed important,” an environmental scientist who has closely monitored the health impacts of the Ukraine war told The Intercept.

DU rounds used by the U.S.-led NATO coalition during the 1999 air war against Yugoslavia are also believed to have caused a surge in leukaemia in the region—both among the local population and foreign troops deployed there. Researchers and veterans’ groups also believe DU could be the cause of the mysterious Gulf War Syndrome afflicting hundreds of thousands of U.S. and coalition troops, although in 2021 the Pentagon concluded there is “no link” between the illness and DU, Common Dreams reported.

Since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the US has allocated more than $24.2 billion for military assistance to Kyiv. The United States on Friday announced a package of $3 billion including 50 Bradleys and dozens of other armoured vehicles for Ukraine. The U.S. equipment includes more than 500 armoured vehicles such as Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers and MRAPS that are resistant to landmines.

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