BEIJING, April 26. /TASS/. Beijing believes that the parties to the military conflict in Ukraine should work to ease tensions instead of adding fuel to the fire, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday.

"As for the Ukrainian crisis, the interested parties should ease the tense situation instead of adding fuel to the fire, and promote a diplomatic solution to the conflict instead of further escalating the situation," she pointed out in response to a TASS request for comment on the UK’s move to supply depleted uranium tank shells to the Ukrainian armed forces.

British Minister of State for the Armed Forces James Heappey said in a written response to a question from Alba Party MP's Kenny MacAskill that "British-supplied Challenger 2 tanks and depleted uranium (DU) ammunition granted to Ukraine are now under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU)." "The [British] Ministry of Defense does not monitor the locations from where DU rounds are fired by the AFU in Ukraine," he added.

According to Heappey, there is "no obligation on the UK to help clear up depleted uranium rounds fired from Challenger 2 tanks by the armed forces of Ukraine."

On March 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the plans for supplying depleted uranium munitions indicated the West's determination to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian. Putin noted that Russia would have to respond. He added that the country had hundreds of thousands of such munitions but had not used any of them yet.