The Biden administration is planning to send controversial depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine, for the first time, as part of a new package of aid being announced Wednesday.
The armor-piercing rounds, said to be effective against Russian tanks, are to be provided after months of debate. Even though the U.K. has already sent such munitions to Ukraine for use with its Challenger 2 tanks, the United States has not agreed to send the rounds until now, according to officials who were granted anonymity to speak with Politico about the announcement.
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder declined to comment Tuesday on whether the United States would be sending the munitions after reports this summer they were being considered.
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of uranium enrichment, but the weapons are common and do not pose a threat of radioactivity, according to U.S. officials, citing studies by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The agency, the nuclear watchdog for the United Nations, says studies show that the "existence of depleted uranium residues dispersed in the environment does not pose a radiological hazard to the population of the affected regions," but opponents, including the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons, say there is a major health risk, including cancer, for people who ingest or touch depleted-uranium dust.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, after the U.K. decided to send the munitions, accused them of supplying "weapons with a nuclear component," a comment seen as Moscow using anti-Western disinformation to spread propaganda.
U.S. officials, though, say they are sending the weapons because they are the best way to arm U.S.-made Abrams tanks, a Defense Department official familiar with the plans said.
The first 10 Abrams are set to arrive in Ukraine in mid-September, with a group of Ukrainian soldiers having finished a training program for them last month, reports Politico.
The decision to send depleted uranium weapons comes after the White House agreed to send cluster munitions to Ukraine. Cluster weapons are banned by more than 100 countries, as they pose a danger to civilians.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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