MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/. Ukraine and Western countries will be responsible for the environmental impact resulting from the use of Western-made ammunition, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.

"The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ use of indiscriminate weapons, including US-made cluster munitions, has led to the collapse of a vast ecosystem," she pointed out. "We believe that Ukraine and its accomplices among the countries that are providing Kiev with such weapons will be responsible for paying for the damage done to the environment and restoring the environment in the former Ukrainian territories after the conflict is over," the diplomat noted.

She pointed out that Ukraine’s massive use of outdated sea mines had contaminated large areas in the Black Sea with hazardous substances. Ukrainian mines have been found drifting along the entire western coast of the Black Sea from Bulgaria to Turkey, Zakharova said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum that the supplies of new weapons to Ukraine, including cluster and depleted uranium munitions, would not change the situation on the frontline, only prolonging the conflict. He pointed out that "not so long ago, the US administration believed that using cluster munitions was a war crime." Now, the US is providing cluster ammunition to the combat zone in Ukraine, Putin noted. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in turn, described the US decision to send depleted uranium munitions to the Kiev regime as "very bad news" and emphasized that NATO’s use of similar weapons in Yugoslavia had led "to very sad consequences," particularly causing a rise in cancer cases.