Russia would be forced to respond if the UK sent shells with depleted uranium to Ukraine, said Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It didn’t take long for Russia to react to the announcement by the British Defence Ministry that the UK would provide Ukraine with shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine. V4NA reported on the dangers of this in this article. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that

the West has decided to fight with Russia „till the last Ukrainian” – not just in words, but in deeds. If the collective West begins to use weapons with a nuclear component, Moscow will be forced to react.

This very likely means that Britain’s ill-advised move would bring the world within arm’s length of nuclear war, rather than facilitate a ceasefire. The British announcement was also reacted to by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who envisions an extremely gloomy future.

„I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually happened, but there’s no doubt it’s going to end badly for them,”

said Russia’s foreign minister, who, after a journalist’s question, also intimated that the situation could take a turn towards the outbreak of World War III because of the West.

Russia’s embassy in London considers the plans to supply Ukraine with ammunition with depleted uranium to be a step fraught with risks of further escalation of the conflict, the embassy said in a statement. „UK weapons supplies to Kiev, especially of such a sensitive nature, would lead to aggravation of the situation […] and run counter to norms of international law, the embassy wrote, noting that

„[The] Radioactivity, high toxicity and carcinogenicity of such weapons are well-known. The consequences of using depleted uranium include the rise in oncological diseases among the population and colossal environmental damage to the Ukrainian territory where it is used. This is well-known to peaceful citizens of Serbia and Iraq who still suffer from such actions. This has hardly been forgotten by the UK leadership which was directly involved in those events.”

„Clearly the British have made the choice towards inflicting maximum damage and destruction to the population of the frontline regions,” the Russian embassy added. The assurances made by the UK leadership on its alleged readiness to assist in Ukraine’s “post-conflict rehabilitation” are particularly cynical in this regard. “In general, this provides further evidence that Ukraine represents nothing more than testing ground for the UK in its stand-off with our country,” the press release reads. The embassy warned London against crossing another dangerous line in its „maniacal desire to achieve Russia’s defeat.”

Despite this, the US does not want to facilitate a ceasefire or peace talks, but has instead decided to transfer an older version of the Abrams tanks to Ukraine to speed up deliveries.

Russia has reason to fear that some of the US military aid to Ukraine could be diverted to the „black market,” Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the US, said. He added that “With each delivery of military equipment, the Zelensky regime feels more and more impunity” and is “provoking the expansion of the geography of the Ukrainian crisis.”