In these Russiaphobic times many will see this article as proof that I am a Putin apologist. I am not. The invasion of Ukraine was wrong, and I am sure that, while both sides have committed war crimes in this war, Ukraine as well as Russia, it is the latter whose sins are greater. But that is not a reason for Britain to supply depleted Uranium tank shells to Ukraine. Iraq and the Yugoslav wars show just how horrible these weapons are.
Of course, they are very good at piercing armour and their deployment will kill more Russian young men and women. But they are toxic and carcinogenic and in years to come many Ukrainian men and women who handle them will die horrid deaths. And after they have been fired they pollute the area where they explode.
The battlefields of Northern France from World war one are these days productive fields, dotted with villages where folks live and breathe and enjoy healthy lives. And one day the battlefields of Ukraine will be returned to a rural idyll. Whether those fields are in Ukraine, an autonomous Donbas or in Russia is another matter but ordinary folks will live there.
And they will then be poisoned by what is left of the shells Britain supplied. They will grow tumours. They will die. Men, women and children. Supplying such awful weapons does no favours to anyone, it ratchets up tensions with Russia but its real sin is the long term suffering it causes to innocents.
Naturally the entire political and media class cheer this on. What this country is doing in sending these awful weapons is not a war crime but it should be. It is certainly not done in my name.