The Biden administration will for the first time send controversial armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine, according to a document seen by Reuters and separately confirmed by two U.S. officials.

The use of depleted uranium munitions has been fiercely debated, with opponents like the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons saying there are dangerous health risks from ingesting or inhaling depleted uranium dust, including cancers and birth defects.

    •  letsgocrazy   ( @letsgocrazy@lemm.ee ) 
      37•10 months ago

      Being invaded is worse.

      The quickest way to save the most amount of lives is whatever gets rid rid of Russia the quickest.

      No question.

      Depleted Uranium is hardly dangerous.

      Another booby trapped mine with a grenade underneath gets placed by Russians every 4 minutes.

      Another Ukrainian citizen is tortured.

      And now there are reports of Ukrainian children being tortured.

      Bring on the napalm.

      •  tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺   ( @tryptaminev@feddit.de ) 
        12•10 months ago

        Depleted Uranium is dangerous for anyone exposed to it. It will be a persistant environmental pollutant that could render large areas unsuitable for agriculture. Downplaying the effects is stupid and dangerous.

        We need to talk about the effects and weigh the military benefit vs. the long term problems. Also for the military benefit you cannot take the shortcut of assuming no AP munitions to be used otherwise. Also the question is whether stronger AP abilities are needed, as Abrams should make quick work of T64s and probably T72s with normal AP rounds too.

        So we have to weigh a potentially marginal benefit with a significant long term health effect. I trust the Ukranian army and government to make that decision, but again the issues shouldn’t be downplayed. Because of downplaying and ignoring the issues with it there is thousands of American and British vets that suffer from diseases and birth defects in their children, struggling to get it recognised and properly compensated.