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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

NO BRITISH DU SHELLS TO UKRAINE!

The UK is supplying depleted uranium (DU) shells to Ukraine to be used by the Challenger tanks Britain is sending. DU ammunition was first deployed by the USA in the 1990 Gulf War. In that war and the 2003 Iraq War some 300 metric tons of DU weapons were used, and 10 metric tons were used in the 1999 NATO military action in Yugoslavia. DU weapons were also used by the US military in Syria in 2015.

Significant increases in horrific birth defects, leukæmia and other cancers, kidney damage, and mental illness in children have been recorded in areas where the munitions were used.

In 2001, the World Health Organisation (WHO) completed a scientific review that concluded that depleted uranium is both chemically and radiologically toxic.

The DU used in battle is spread throughout the environment, including the soil and water tables, and remains radioactive for more than 4.5 billion years.

The rich Western countries that dominate and control the UN and its bodies have promised to clean up the DU in Iraq but have failed to deliver.

It is likely that the people of the former Yugoslavia and Iraq will be living with the tragic consequences of the use of DU for generations to come, unless the rich nations come forward to finance environmental cleansing and monitoring on a massive scale.

But we can try to stop DU weapons being used in yet another NATO-backed war, a war which the entire NATO alliance is prolonging with billions in arms deliveries and active support for the Kiev regime through intelligence and undercover forces operating in the country.

We are calling on the British government to reverse its decision to send depleted uranium shells to Ukraine, and to ensure that DU ammunition already sent to Ukraine is not used in battle.