The government of the American president Joe Biden will ship to ukraine armor-piercing depleted uranium munitionsdesigned to penetrate armor, according to a document seen by the Reuters news agency and two of its sources.

The shells, intended primarily for the destruction of Russian tanks and other armored vehicles, will be included in Washington’s new military aid package to Kiev which is expected to be presented within the coming week.

They can be fired from US Abrams tanks, dozens of which – according to a source briefed on the matter – will be delivered to the Ukrainian army within weeks.

One of Reuters’ sources in the US government estimated that this package would be worth between 240 million and 375 million dollars, depending on what it would include, which has not yet been finalized.

The White House did not immediately respond when the agency asked for comment on the information.

Britain already sent such missiles to Ukraine earlier this year, but US deliveries of depleted uranium shells are expected to provoke a backlash. They will follow Washington’s decision to send cluster munitions to the Ukrainian military, despite concerns about the long-term dangers the munitions pose to civilians.

They cause cancers

The use of depleted uranium munitions is hotly contested. Their opponents, especially the International Alliance for the Prohibition of Uranium Weapons, complain that they pose huge risks to human health, as inhaling or ingesting depleted uranium dust can cause cancers and very serious reproductive problems.

A by-product of the uranium enrichment process, the depleted uranium it is used to make ammunition because its tremendous density allows it to penetrate armor and ignite. This metal is radioactive, but much less radioactive than natural uranium, yet its particles remain radioactive for much longer, up to 700 million years.

The US military used such munitions en masse in the 1990 and 2003 Gulf Wars, as well as in 1999 when NATO bombed the former Yugoslavia.

THE International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates, citing studies in the former Yugoslavia, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon, that depleted uranium residues in the environment “do not pose a radiological risk to the population”. This conclusion remains controversial.

This radioactive material will be added anyway to the already titanic work that will need to be done post-war in Ukraine for the removal of dangerous materials. Much of the country is littered with unexploded ordnance, including cluster cluster munitions and millions of landmines.

The information that Washington was considering the possibility of sending depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine was published in July by the Wall Street Journal.

Recent packages of equipment destined for Ukraine announced by the US Department of Defense included ammunition for artillery, missiles for air defense systems and armored fighting vehicles. Reuters reports that it was unable to ascertain what else the new military aid package will contain, beyond tanks and depleted uranium missiles.

Funding for the package is secured thanks to a special presidential prerogative (the so-called Presidential Drawdown Authority), which allows deliveries of military goods and services without congressional approval in emergency situations. The material will come from surplus US military stockpiles.

The value of US military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded its territory in late February 2022 exceeds $43 billion.