(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday condemned British plans to send tank ammunition that contains depleted uranium to Ukraine, saying Moscow would be forced to respond accordingly.
Speaking in London on Monday, Minister of State for Defence Annabel Goldie said some of the ammunition for the Challenger 2 battle tanks that Britain is sending to Ukraine includes armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium.
“If all this happens, Russian will have to respond accordingly, given that the West collectively is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component,” Putin said in remarks after a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He did not elaborate.
Russian politicians and commentators have made a series of combative remarks since the invasion of Ukraine last year, suggesting Moscow would – if necessary – be prepared to deploy its vast nuclear arsenal.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the British decision left fewer and fewer steps before a potential “nuclear collision” between Russia and the West.
“Another step has been taken, and there are fewer and fewer left,” he told reporters in remarks cited by domestic agencies.
Depleted uranium is used in weapons because it can penetrate tanks and armour more easily due to its density and other physical properties, a point that Goldie made.
It is a particular health risk around impact sites, where dust can get into people’s lungs and vital organs.
“Naturally, Russia has something to answer this with,” Shoigu told reporters when asked about the ammunition.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the plan the “Yugoslavia scenario”, saying the ammunition caused cancer and infected the environment.
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How on earth can this be prevented?
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Moscow would be forced to respond accordingly.
What does the West expect, Moscow’s response would be?
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This is my impression Aunty:
1) From various Russian journalists, I have the opinion that Russia is far more advanced than the US and Europe in terms of non-nuclear hypersonic weapons that could inflect significant damage on significant US or European infrastructure without releasing significant nuclear fallout that would blow back on Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and their allies.
2) That both the US and Russia know the US is probably not capable of launching significant nuclear retaliation against Russia because they have not upgraded their nuclear weapons stocks or launch mechanisms in many years. In other words, a nuclear war would be one-side and the US would lose.
3) That the announcement by Britain/US of the deployment of nuclear weapons is a psychological game – the only weapons the US has left. I think the main object is to terrorize the civilian population is to invoke fear in the civilization on both sides because extreme fear makes them much more pliable and willing to accept totalitarian control measures from government.
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US and Europe might soon be catching up and also have non-nuclear hypersonic weapons! It is a dangerous cat and mouse game, isn’t it?
What can we do about it?
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I disagree. The US and Europe will never catch up because they have systematically destroyed their manufacturing base by shutting down their factories and shifting their manufacturing capacity to the Third World. This is something Russia and China never did.
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I see, Stuart. This is very interesting.
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The North Atlantic Terrorist Organization strikes again. Except, this time, they are up against a real enemy that can defeat them.
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https://thefreeonline.com/2023/03/22/putin-blasts-uk-boast-it-will-send-radioactive-uranium-ammo-du-to-ukraine-causes-deformities-for-a-billion-years/
Is this just to scare us or what?
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In my opinion, yes. If we look at what’s really happening, the US has just totally destroyed Germany’s industrial capacity by blowing up the Nordstream pipelines – their primary source of energy to their factories. Germany is the real loser here, but nobody talks about it.
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Indeed, nobody talks about it. I wonder what the mood is now in Germany. The friends and family I still have in Germany, may be a bit worried about the future, but so far their lives have not changed much yet. My brother stressed, that he is glad that they had a fairly mild winter!
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And they know Putin will defeat them, papasha40. Their own generals have told them so.
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For how long will most of the European nations be so keen to belong to NATO?
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Hopefully, not long, auntyuta!
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