The Russian Ministry of Defense announced today that the use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine will harm Ukrainian soldiers, the wider population and have negative effects on the country’s agricultural sector for decades, even centuries.

Russia has reacted angrily to plans announced earlier this week by Britain to send shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine.

London maintains it is a conventional form of ammunition, but President Vladimir Putin said the move showed NATO members were sending weapons with “nuclear components” to Kiev.

“The West is well aware of the negative effects of using depleted uranium munitions,” Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, said in a statement today.

He said evidence of the use of depleted uranium by the US and its allies in the Balkans and Iraq shows serious and long-lasting negative effects on local populations and the environment.

Ukraine’s agricultural industry risks suffering “for decades, if not centuries, to come,” he commented.

Critics of the use of depleted uranium, such as the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons, argue that the dust created by such weapons is inhaled, while munitions that miss their targets can contaminate soil and groundwater.

Countries like the US and Britain argue that depleted uranium is a good tool to destroy a modern tank.

The Russian Defense Ministry maintains that the use of depleted uranium shells — compared to tungsten-based munitions — “has no significant advantages” on the battlefield.

The Royal Society said in a 2002 report that the risks to the kidneys and other organs from the use of depleted uranium are very limited for most soldiers on the battlefield and for those living in the conflict zone.

Russia is also known to produce weapons using depleted uranium along with about 20 other countries, according to the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons.