Japanese opposition denounced Kishida for keeping quiet with Zelensky on depleted uranium shells

TOKYO, March 28 – RIA Novosti. Taro Yamamoto, leader of Japan’s opposition Reiwa Shinsengumi party, criticized Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for not urging Volodymyr Zelensky, a native of the atomic bombed Hiroshima, not to use depleted uranium bullets.

At a meeting of the budget committee of the upper house of the Japanese parliament, Yamamoto raised the issue of Britain’s intention to transport depleted uranium-containing munitions to Ukraine.

“Mr Prime Minister, do you intend to encourage the UK not to send such shells?” – asked the politician Kishida.

The head of the Japanese government did not directly answer the question and simply explained that “despite various studies on its negative effects on human health, no concrete results could be obtained”.

Judging by Kishida’s confused answer, the question took the Prime Minister by surprise.

This response did not satisfy the opposition, who sarcastically said that “such a message could be seen as a bad message because the Prime Minister was from Hiroshima” who was hit with the atomic bomb.

British Deputy Defense Secretary Annabelle Goldie said in a statement in the British Parliament’s House of Lords on March 21 that the UK will hand over the Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine with armor-piercing sub-caliber shells containing depleted uranium.

Speaking of London’s initiative, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Federation would have to react if the collective West began using weapons with nuclear components, and that the West “decided to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, not in words, but in deed.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it would be a bad ending for London if that happened. The official representative of the Ministry, Maria Zakharova, described the use of depleted uranium shells as a manifestation of genocide against the people, in which such weapons were used. The use of uranium munitions will cause irreparable harm to the health of the military and civilian population of Ukraine, but NATO is ready to supply them to Kiev, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense forces of the RF Armed Forces Igor Kirillov, previously Deputy Head of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, He said the delayed consequences of using weapons containing depleted uranium could be very serious and that the Ukrainian people should consider whether they want it.

Natural uranium consists mainly of the isotopes of uranium-238 (about 99.3%) and uranium-235 (about 0.7%). Depleted uranium is the uranium that remains after uranium-235 has been separated from it as a result of enrichment. However, 0.2-0.3% uranium-235 remains in depleted uranium. The density of uranium is close to that of tungsten. This reduces aerodynamic drag while making smaller bullets equal in mass to most other metal bullets. Depleted uranium is used in the cores of sub-caliber armor-piercing projectiles, which have high kinetic energy. Because uranium is pyrophoric (its small particles spontaneously ignite in air), however, bullets have a significantly greater armor damaging effect than bullets with a tungsten core. The radioactivity of depleted uranium is less than that of natural uranium ore. However, like other heavy metals, uranium is toxic. According to some experts, genetic damage that causes cancer may be related to the mechanism of mutually increasing the chemical toxicity of uranium particles entering the body, and although relatively weak, but still depleted uranium radioactivity.