MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Constant monitoring of soil and groundwater contamination is necessary in areas where NATO used depleted uranium shells, Russian Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops commander Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said Friday.

"Soil and groundwater contamination levels require constant monitoring for a long time in order to assess potential risks," he said during a briefing on consequences of shipment of depleted uranium shells to Ukraine.

According to Kirillov, the report of experts that surveyed the environment in NATO strikes area under the UN aegis, published in 2002 in Geneva, noted that the experts were surprised by the fact that, over two years after the bombing, depleted uranium particles were still present in the air.

He also noted that experts discovered fragments of uranium bombs in Serbia’s Plackovica area, despite NATO did not report the bombardment in this region.

"The mystery of uranium contamination in Plackovica remains unresolved," the commander said.

Earlier on Monday, UK Minister of State for Defense Annabel Goldie said in her written response to an inquiry by Member of the House of Lords Raymond Jolliffe that British authorities will send shells to Ukraine that contain depleted uranium and that feature improved efficiency against armored vehicles.

Commenting on this decision of British authorities, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia will have to correspondingly react to the fact that the "collective West begins using weapons with a nuclear component."

The Russian Embassy in the UK warned London against shipping depleted uranium shells to Kiev. The Embassy underscored that this step may cause an escalation of the conflict, and use of such shells in Ukraine would affect the health of the local population.