Earlier this week, UK Minister of State for Defense Annabel Goldie announced that London’s military assistance for Ukraine may include depleted uranium tank munitions for the Challenger 2 tanks Britain has already vowed to provide to the regime in Kiev.
This declaration elicited a harsh response from Moscow, with Russian President Vladimir Putin warning that the use of “weapons with a nuclear component" by the “Collective West” would force Russia to “react accordingly.”
Meanwhile, quite a few netizens were quick to point out that, while depleted uranium is not as radioactive as actual uranium, it still poses a “heavy metal hazard” and tiny DU particles may contaminate the soil and groundwater where such munitions would be used.
“This would be a severe case of ecocide,” one social media user mused.
Another noted that the byproducts of the use of the DU munitions by the US forces in Iraq caused “horrible birth defects” in “innocent Iraqi children.”
“No American has been indicted for shooting up Fallujah with DU rounds. Now the cancer and birth defect rates there are off the chart,” yet another netizen recalled.
There also seemed to be shortage of people worrying about the nature of Russia’s possible response to this development, with one netizen, for example, wondering aloud: “So, should I start building a nuclear bunker now? Or is it too late at this point?”