LONDON, April 26. /TASS/. The United Kingdom will not be able to dodge responsibility for the consequences of the use of depleted uranium rounds in Ukraine, the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom has said in a statement.
Commenting on Tuesday’s remarks by the Minister of State at the UK Ministry of Defense James Heappey, the embassy said: "He cynically stated that London is not monitoring the deployment of these weapons - the responsibility for this allegedly borne by the armed forces of Ukraine - and has no obligation to eliminate the consequences of their use following the end of the conflict. All this while discussions are ongoing at the IAEA on the issue of accountability to the Agency by countries that are participating in the supply of such source fissile materials."
"Shockingly, against this background, the UK Defense Ministry does not seem to realize the extent of hypocrisy of their clerical assurances that London intends to "lay the groundwork" for a successful post-conflict reconstruction of Ukraine," the statement says.
"We call on the British authorities not to indulge in illusory hopes that they will be able to get off scot-free by making the armed forces of Ukraine accountable for the toxic ammunition now at their disposal. London will not succeed in shifting blame to its Kiev clients for their crimes," Russian diplomats added.
Britain has sent to Ukraine thousands of shells for Challenger 2 tanks, including those with depleted uranium, but it does not monitor their use and has no obligation to eliminate the consequences of their use once the conflict is over, Secretary of State for Defense James Heappey said in his written responses to questions from Scottish MP Kenny MacAskill of the Alba Party.
On March 20, a written answer from Britain’s Minister of State for Defense, Baroness Annabel Goldie, to a question from a member of the House of Lords said that the authorities would supply Ukraine with shells that contained depleted uranium and had an increased efficiency in destroying armored vehicles. On March 27, Declassified UK, a portal specializing in investigative journalism, reported that British instructors were training Ukrainian tank crews in the use of depleted uranium munitions.
On March 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the plans for supplying depleted uranium munitions demonstrated the West's intention to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian. He noted that Russia would have to respond; it had hundreds of thousands of such munitions, but had not used any of them yet.