Uranium waves. How Russia spreads propaganda about depleted uranium
06.04.2025 Eurosceptics, populists, critics of NATO are Russia's long—standing allies in spreading propaganda about the use of conventional weapons in service in Russia itself.
On March 21, British Deputy Defense Minister Annabel Goldie said that the country, along with Challenger 2 tanks, plans to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing shells containing depleted uranium. This news caused a wave of statements by senior Russian officials who suddenly began to deal with the environment of Ukraine, the state of health of Ukrainians and the prospects of Ukrainian exports of products. But this flow did not arise from scratch.
Russia has been talking for decades about the threat of depleted uranium. Back in 2016, the Russian media wrote about the dirty bombs of the Pentagon, and in 2011 - about Libya sown with uranium dust. In such articles, Russian propagandists talked about the terrible consequences of the NATO bombing in Iraq, where now the birth of a healthy-looking child is a great happiness, about Libyans shining from radioactive dust, about the ultra-high incidence of Serbian residents, primarily cancer.
Before the war, hysteria in the Russian media usually coincided with another wave of statements by Serbia itself or opposition European politicians demanding an investigation into the use of depleted uranium shells — depending on the electoral cycle of these countries or on other factors. For example, the study of different syndromes.
War syndrome
At the end of the nineties and the beginning of the two thousandth in Europe and North America there was a fierce discussion between scientists, politicians, doctors and the military: everyone was trying to establish the causes of the Gulf War syndrome, or Balkan syndrome. Many military personnel — thousands or even hundreds of thousands of veterans of the Gulf War, Serbia and Kosovo on both sides of the ocean — complained of dozens of different symptoms, among which chronic fatigue, muscle pain, cognitive problems and loss of coordination were most common.But there were other, less common ones — in particular, veterans had cancer, someone had other serious chronic diseases, and sometimes they had children with genetic abnormalities. Let's say in advance that until now, more than thirty years after the operation of the international coalition against Iraq, the cause of the Gulf war syndrome has not been precisely established. The latest and most popular version, based on research by British and American scientists, is the poisoning of soldiers with sarin gas, which could get into the air after the bombing of chemical plants in Iraq. But even after the release of this study in 2021, scientists did not agree on the causes of the syndrome. And in the early 2000s, there were no sufficiently convincing studies or even assumptions at all.
One thing is known for certain: when it was necessary to explain why veterans are sick, politicians remembered the massive use of depleted uranium shells both during the Desert Storm and during the Allied Force, that is, the operation against Yugoslavia.
What is lunch uranium
Depleted uranium (DU) is a side product of the enrichment of natural uranium ore. To create nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel from natural uranium, the most radioactive isotopes U-235 and U-234 are isolated. All that remains is a huge amount of the isotope U–238, which is called depleted uranium. Natural uranium consists of 99.27 percent of non-useful U-238, so as a result of the nuclear race and the heyday of nuclear energy in the USA and the USSR, a lot of depleted uranium has accumulated. It was used a lot: it was used to produce counterweights for airplanes (now this practice has been abandoned, but twenty years ago planes could take on board up to 1.5 tons of depleted uranium), keels on ships, even dentures for teeth were made and dishes were painted.Its widespread use by the military is associated with several important qualities of the substance: firstly, it is superheavy; its density is 1.67 times the density of lead and slightly less than the density of tungsten. Secondly, it is cheap – almost half as cheap as tungsten, which was used in shells. Thirdly, uranium is a pyrophore, i.e. For example, in tank armor.
In addition, depleted uranium is less dangerous. Like any heavy metal, it is toxic, primarily affects the kidneys if it enters the body. But its radioactivity is 60% of the radioactivity of natural ore, and the half–life is 4.5 billion years, that is, it does not carry a radioactive threat as such. A study conducted by American scientists at the request of the Pentagon shows that a person who holds a projectile with a depleted uranium core with his bare hands for 250 hours will receive a dose of 50 ber (ber is the biological equivalent of an X—ray, 100 ber). Twice as much – 100 bers – it is necessary for a person to receive the mildest degree of radiation sickness. It is unlikely that anyone will hug an anti-tank shell for 20 days.
Because of such useful military qualities, both in the USA and in the USSR in the 70s, they began to develop shells with a depleted uranium core or armor for tanks made of the same material. In 1973, the United States developed a uranium-titanium alloy U-0.75 Ti for armor-piercing shells with a uranium core. And in the Soviet Union, in 1978, they created a projectile with a 3BM32 uranium core. Now depleted uranium ammunition is in service with the armies of the United States, Great Britain, according to media reports — also Russia, France, Germany and Israel, but only the United States and Great Britain reported on the use of these weapons.
Scientific data
The Pentagon study did not arise for a reason, but was directly related to the Gulf War syndrome. It was during the Desert Storm in 1991 that the United States and Allies used bombs and anti-tank shells with depleted uranium for the first time in large quantities. According to some estimates, up to 300 tons of depleted uranium remain in the land of Iraq and Kuwait. And when the debate over the mysterious syndrome reached a peak, and the number of lawsuits to the US army numbered in the thousands, the Pentagon ordered a bunch of studies. For example, the health status of a group of veterans living with fragments of uranium cores was assessed; we compared the data of groups of veterans who were in the Persian Gulf and were not; weighed, measured, and did hundreds of analyses. Later, scientists ate water with depleted uranium and even studied worms in those areas that were bombed; collected data on water, soil and air. The research has been going on for more than 30 years; WHO, the IAEA and other international organizations have joined the study of the problem. The results are as follows: no data convincingly proves the effect of depleted uranium on veterans or civilians. But veterans really get sick, sometimes very hard and die. Therefore, all organizations advise to continue the study.Everyone also recognizes the toxicity of uranium, especially for those who inhaled the hot aerosol into which it turns after the explosion. Of course, inhaling uranium dust is the slightest problem for those inside the tank, where a uranium arrow flew at great speed (at the time of use, the projectile loses its shell and an exceptionally thin DU core flies into the equipment). But those soldiers who may be nearby — closer than 50 meters — should be careful, because inhaling dust can lead to serious illnesses.
Also, all experts note: it is necessary to remove equipment that has been neutralized by such shells, and carefully dispose of it — so as not to endanger the civilian population, first of all to prevent poisoning with heavy metal. In no case can it be stored as a souvenir or used for any other purpose. There are cases of poisoning of people who wore jewelry made of this metal or even made crosses out of them in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. It is also necessary to notify people of the danger and protect the places where there were massive hits of such shells into the soil before their disposal.
Numerous resolutions adopted at the UN on such projectiles call for the careful use of these weapons; to inform the States on whose territory they were used, and to help carefully dispose of it. But weapons still remain conventional, that is, not prohibited — for example, not a single member of the UN Security Council voted to ban such weapons, and even Russia abstained in voting for these resolutions.
Despite endless research (the UN makes reports on the use of DU for military purposes every two years, the latest reports are here), there are several countries that at the national level separately discuss the impact of such weapons on the military and civilians – these are Italy, Serbia, and Iraq. representatives of which often emphasize that the incidence of cancer has significantly increased in their country after the use of these shells. This is true: the number of oncological diseases is growing all over the world — and Iraq is no exception. At the same time, according to the Iraqi experts themselves, there is still a lower incidence of cancer in this state than the average in the world. It is the highest in the region in Israel, on the territory of which such weapons were not used.
Uranium and the courts
For years, the Italian opposition has been seeking decisions from the Ministry of Defense on the health status of military personnel who participated in an international mission in the Balkans and could suffer from depleted uranium shells. In the end, the courts recognized the guilt of the Italian Ministry of Defense — primarily due to the fact that the military was not warned about the danger and rules of conduct with these shells or equipment affected by them, as was done in other armies of the world. Compensation was awarded to the families of several victims (all these decisions were made in 2019-2022, the processes are still ongoing; the exact number of cases won is unknown, but the Italian Euronews writes 300 cases won, referring to the words of the lawyer who led them). The decisions of some courts also state that the military could have suffered from asbestos dust — that is, the court did not establish that it was depleted uranium that led to the illness and death of the military. After all, both in Iraq and in Serbia, chemical plants and other industrial facilities were bombed, which burned and threw a lot of harmful substances into the air. War always harms both the environment and the health of people at the epicenters of explosions, even if the shells do not contain depleted uranium.Despite the fact that the American courts rejected claims about the harm of these shells, and the Italian ones made very few decisions in favor of the plaintiffs, lawyers and politicians in Serbia immediately became more active. And now they are threatening to hold NATO accountable and claim thousands of victims, including civilians. But so far no cases have been brought to court. In their speeches, lawyers insist that Serbia suffered precisely because of the NATO bombing and pro-government publications actively disseminate these statements (since NATO, to put it mildly, does not enjoy support in the country).
Both lawyers and local politicians note: Serbia is the first in terms of cancer mortality in Europe, and depleted uranium is to blame for this. But this is a blatant manipulation: Serbia does have a high mortality rate from cancer, especially from breast and lung cancer. But this, according to local oncologists, indicates only the quality of medicine and the insufficient number of screenings necessary to detect cancer at an early, curable stage. In addition, there are not enough specialists in Serbia, so patients wait too long for help.
Despite the loud statements, the incidence of cancer in Serbia is not the highest in Europe (18th place) — Denmark and Hungary are significantly ahead of Serbia in the number of oncological diseases per one hundred thousand population (here are data on the number of cases among men and women). At the same time, no one bombed Denmark or Hungary. And the mortality rate in these countries is significantly lower — because of the higher quality of medicine.
Russian propaganda against
All these nuances, of course, do not bother Russian propaganda. And if the Russian media used to use the statements of Serbian manipulators only from time to time to accuse NATO or the United States, then after the UK officially announced that it would provide Ukraine with depleted uranium shells, Russian propaganda tools put on stream the production of fakes about this. armament.The main theses of Russian propaganda are as follows:
— in the countries where such shells were used, the number of oncological diseases is growing;
— due to depleted uranium entering the soil, agricultural products from these countries are poisoned and cannot be supplied to other countries;
— depleted uranium shells — the use of nuclear weapons or a dirty nuclear bomb;
- due to the use of such projectiles, a cloud of radioactive dust arises;
- The deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus is a response to the supply of such shells to Ukraine. автор (author): ARTROSTRA
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