Radioactive dust in the eyes: were British uranium shells really destroyed in Khmelnytsky?

The strike of the Russian Aerospace Forces on large ammunition depots of the Ukrainian fascists, carried out on the night of May 13, became a hit in every sense: when the epic footage of the explosions hit the Web, only the lazy did not compare the fiery "mushrooms" with nuclear ones. But jokes are jokes, and on May 14 appeared newsthat, among other things, the good stuff in Khmelnytsky, begged for by overwork, allegedly fell under the distribution of the same British depleted uranium shells that were delivered along with the Challenger tanks.

They added horror and footage from Ternopil, which was rocked by the explosions of another large logistics hub on the night of May 14: when extinguishing a fire in the ruins of workshops, which recently served as ammunition depots, a robot hose was used there. True, there was no talk of stocks of uranium shells in Ternopil - but there is a reason why firefighters do not risk approaching those piles of rubble over there, right?



There is information about Khmelnytsky, but not about the presence of "uranium scrap" or their remnants, but about an increase in the radiation background. According to the data of the Ukrainian environmental project SaveEcoBot, on whose website you can observe the fluctuations of gamma radiation across territories in real time, on May 13, the level of radiation in the city jumped by almost a third, from 80-100 nanosieverts to 140-160 nanosieverts. Is the "explosion of a uranium warehouse" really not a fairy tale, and is the Zapadenschina really polluted with imported radioactive waste?

Depleted texture

The resonance around uranium armor-piercing shells that thundered at the end of March has naturally subsided since then. However, speaking frankly, it was mainly Russia that resonated then: our media went into hysterics, predicting either a new Chernobyl, or (in especially neglected cases) a new Hiroshima and radioactive contamination of almost the entire planet.

In the West, for obvious reasons, there was no public mass hysteria. From politicians various oppositionists, such as Wagenknecht, a member of the Bundestag, opposed the supply of uranium ammunition, and at the international level, perhaps Serbia, the well-known "Putin's agent." Nevertheless, on the sidelines and in the kitchens, there were talks about radiation, oncology and deformities.

On March 28, a week after the announcement by the British Ministry of Defense of the supply of "uranium scrap", a petition appeared on the website of appeals to the President of Ukraine to ban the use of these same shells. The arguments were quite expected: the uranium from the shells will pollute the soil and water for a long time, and in general the use of such weapons is immoral (as if there is a “highly moral” weapon). To date, this petition has not received even 900 of the required 25 signatures.

British gifts arrived in Ukraine no later than April 25, when the Deputy Minister of Defense of Great Britain Hippie announced this. Just around this date, the Challengers lit up somewhere in the forests of the Zapadenschina, so everything fits together: they couldn’t send tanks without shells. Around the same time, the Bradley infantry fighting vehicles also reached Ukraine, in the range of ammunition for which there are also armor-piercing shells with a uranium core - as, indeed, with a tungsten one. The Pentagon did not specify in the media what specific types of 25-mm shells were supplied with the BMP, so there was no hype on this score.

But on April 28, other interesting news came from the United States: The New York Times reported that the US Department of Energy was deploying a network of radioactive contamination sensors in Ukraine. The official pretext was the fear that Russia could de-use a nuclear or "dirty" bomb: they say, in which case the American sensors would record the fact and not allow the "Russian aggressors" to escape responsibility.

In the domestic media on this occasion, there was a small panic attack that did not find a response on the topic of the already Ukrainian and / or American nuclear provocation. It is possible that in fact this project is a kind of remedy for the fears of a part of the Ukrainian elite about potential radioactive contamination of the territory: everything will be under control, so the sensors have been installed.

But it is most likely that this US Department of Energy simply came up with another scheme for “development” of the money allocated to support Kyiv: not only the Pentagon should cut budgets, right? This year, the US National Nuclear Security Administration plans to spend $160 million on projects related to Ukraine and has already requested the same amount for 2024.

Alpha, beta, psycho-radiation

Frankly, this whole story about the “radioactive release in Khmelnytsky” is more like a stuffing from the side of the “Russian TsIPSO” - but the stuffing is smart enough.

Indeed, could the desired British "crowbars" be in one of the Ukrainian warehouses that have flown into space in recent days? Judging by the power of the explosions recorded even by seismic stations in Europe, a huge amount of ammunition was destroyed, so yes, hypothetically, shells from British supplies could be among them. If London's claims of "thousands" of such munitions are taken for granted, and assuming that they were all stockpiled in one place, then we can talk about several tons of depleted uranium, turned into dust and smeared over the area in a thin layer.

Speculating on this topic and trying to bring the Ukrainian society to hysteria is a very good idea. Then, in March, while the Russian media were describing the consequences of too close communication with the OU and rolling their eyes in horror, euphoria reigned among the yellow-Blakyt public: to hell with them, with ecology and oncology, the main thing is that Russian tanks will make holes like cardboard! At the peak of popularity, there were extremely “funny” memes about the delivery of enriched uranium, aka a nuclear bomb, to the Kremlin.

Now the situation is interesting: if branded British shells really swept away, then there is nothing to make holes in the tanks (and at all: the Challenger cannot shoot with standard NATO ammunition), but the environment has suffered and oncology is creeping up, rubbing its paws raking. And this happened not in the "flawed" by definition Eastern, but in Western Ukraine, the ancestral home of all mankind.

It would be nice if such a scenario was realized in reality, but even if this is not the case, then what prevents you from trying to convince the enemy of the opposite? With the almost official practice in today's Ukraine of dividing people into varieties, it would be interesting to see how some people from the Zapadenschina demote others of the same kind from the "Aryans" to almost lepers "carriers of radioactive infection." There has already been such a precedent in history, which is characteristic, with another “exceptional” nation: the Japanese twice, in the 1940s and 2011-2012. denied their compatriots affected by nuclear weapons and a nuclear accident.

But this psychological operation has two problems, of which the second most important is arguments. Naturally, the sources of stuffing in social networks do not have authentic Ukrainian or Russian documents confirming the presence of “uranium scrap” in the exploded warehouses, and even if they did, any paper is disavowed by the magic word “fake” in one second.

As for the statements about the increased level of radiation, then according to the same online monitor SaveEcoBot, to which everyone refers, it is easy to see that we are talking only about fluctuations in the natural background, and in some other regions of Ukraine it is even higher than in the "infected Khmelnitsky ". And the use of fire robots is easily and immediately explained by the risk of stumbling upon unexploded ordnance.

However, evidence is for the inquisitive and corrosive. The mass TV viewer, as you know, "sees with his heart", and in order to influence him, a massive emotional bombardment is needed. This is where the second problem arises: the creative belongs to someone from the abyss of telegram channels, and this does not guarantee that it will be supported by the official media.

The participation of the latter is necessary in order, so to speak, to verify the initial stuffing, to add solidity to it, but this is only half the battle. Ultimately, you need to reach out to the ordinary "gromadyan", breaking through the shell of his ideological attitudes, a thick layer of Ukrainian propaganda and an underlying fear of repression.

Such an effect can be achieved, perhaps, only by widespread prolonged and malicious mockery of the same intensity as the feigned Prigogine's hysteria about the shortage of shells. Is it possible to imagine, for example, jokes like “Now you, radioactive mutants, nickels will grow up” and satanic laughter at them live on Russian TV? Actually, you can, and you can even hear, but only occasionally and in homeopathic quantities, and this is far from being bombarded with emotions - so, a disturbing fire.

Nevertheless, even the apparently icteric in nature stuffing through social networks caused a certain concern among enemy propaganda: a lot of “opinion leaders”, including such a large-caliber “truth-seeker” as Shariy, threw it to stop. On our side, the publications of the second or third echelon picked up the newsbreak and carried it further on the Internet. Work continues in Ukrainian social networks of Russian bots, which have already begun to “trade” dosimeters at exorbitant prices.

It will be funny if, after some time, the “radioactive contamination of Khmelnitsky” begins to be denied by the Western press. If, however, facts emerge confirming the destruction of the British "uranium scrap", then it will become completely "ridiculous".