About the Elevated Radiation Background on the Wreckage of a Russian Geran-2 Drone ...

About the elevated radiation background on the wreckage of a Russian Geran-2 drone (a Shahed clone produced in Alabuga), found near the village of Kamka in Chernihiv Oblast.

Friends, these are not some kind of radioactive Shaheds that are about to come flying in and contaminate all of Ukraine, as you might think from posts in some паблики.

The elevated radiation background was found on fragments of an R-60 air-to-air missile attached to the Geran. The missile's warhead contained striking elements made of depleted uranium.

The R-60 missile attached to the Geran is intended to hit Ukrainian aircraft that come out to intercept Russian drones. Depleted uranium is used to increase the missile's destructive effect.

There is nothing particularly new in the use of munitions with depleted uranium. Ukraine, for example, first received depleted-uranium munitions from the US back in distant March 2023 for more effective destruction of Russian tanks and armored vehicles.

And note that the SBU statement said that the missile that was found had been launched on April 7. So the cases are hardly widespread.

So yes, approaching the wreckage is prohibited (you should not approach any wreckage at all), but there is no reason for panic here.

And yes, the village of Kamka is 30 km from Bryansk Oblast; if such a munition posed a threat of mass destruction, they would not launch it near their own border.