MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. Russia has all the necessary means of control to establish the fact of deliveries of depleted uranium shells to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"The fact of supplies of depleted uranium shells and their use is quite identifiable. Our country has all the necessary means of objective control. This is not the work of our Foreign Ministry, it is up to our security bloc, which has all the possibilities for the relevant expertise," the diplomat said.

According to Zakharova, Russia proceeds from the fact that the UK "fully understands all the perniciousness of what they are planning to do and all the responsibility they are to assume in case of supplies of such munitions and their use by the Kiev regime".

British Parliamentary Secretary of State Baroness Annabel Goldie said in a written response to a question by a member of the House of Lords in March that the United Kingdom would supply Ukraine with shells containing depleted uranium and having increased efficiency in destroying armored vehicles. The British Defense Ministry described depleted uranium as a standard component of armor-piercing ammunition, which has been used for decades.

Commenting on the decision of the British authorities, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would be forced to respond accordingly to the fact that "the West is already starting to use weapons with a nuclear component." The Russian embassy in the UK warned London against transferring depleted uranium ammunition to Kiev. The diplomatic mission's commentary stressed that the move was fraught with an escalation of the conflict, while the use of such munitions in Ukraine would affect the health of the local population.