UNITED NATIONS, April 25. /TASS/. The UK needs to understand its responsibility for providing Ukrainian forces with depleted-uranium projectiles because there are people that fell prey to the consequences of strikes by such rockets, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

UK Minister for the Armed Forces James Heappey on Tuesday said the UK had sent Ukraine thousands of rounds for Challenger 2 tanks, including depleted-uranium rounds. He said the UK wouldn’t be tracking down their use and hadn’t taken on any commitments to remove the consequences of their use after the end of the conflict.

"We have spoken about depleted uranium several times. No matter what they say that it’s not radioactive and is not on the IAEA lists. There are facts and interviews with people that suffered [from the consequences of strikes with such rockets] in the former Yugoslavia (during NATO bombings in 1999 - TASS). They were shown on television channels worldwide. So, [the UK] needs to understand its responsibility," he said at a news conference to sum up his visit to New York, which was part of Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on March 21 that the plans to supply depleted-uranium rounds were testimony of the West’s plan to wage war on Russia to the last Ukrainian, not in word, but in deed. The president said Russia would be forced to respond, adding the country has hundreds of thousands of such munitions, but it hadn’t used them as yet.