- The US announced on Wednesday that it is sending depleted-uranium anti-tank rounds to Ukraine.
- Russia responded angrily, saying the move was an "indicator of inhumanity."
Russia can pull its tanks from Ukraine if it's unhappy with the US sending depleted-uranium rounds to Ukraine, a US official told Politico.
The official was responding to Russia's complaints over the US announcement that it would send Ukraine tank rounds with depleted uranium.
"What really is happening is that Russia simply doesn't want to see Ukraine with tanks and more effective tank rounds that could be lethal against Russian tanks," the official, who was granted anonymity because the topic is sensitive, said.
"If Russia has an issue with that, they can withdraw their tanks from Ukraine," they added.
The official also said that Russia is preparing to spread propaganda that the rounds aren't safe, despite Russia also having them in its stockpile.
The Biden administration announced plans on Wednesday to give Ukraine 120 mm ammunition made from depleted uranium, alongside other weaponry.
The ammunition, for American-made M1 Abrams tanks, which are yet to arrive in Ukraine, can penetrate armor and also ignite the insides of vehicles, Insider's Jake Epstein reported.
Russia reacted angrily to the news, with the Russian embassy in Washington posting on Telegram that "the administration's decision to supply weapons with depleted uranium is an indicator of inhumanity," according to Al Jazeera's translation.
It said that firing the weapons results in the "formation of a moving radioactive cloud" that can cause cancer.
But US officials say there is no radioactive threat, citing the UN nuclear watchdog, which says that depleted-uranium residues dispersed in the environment "does not pose a radiological hazard to the population of the affected regions," Politico reported.
The US military has been making weapons from depleted uranium for decades, but the US debated for months about sending the ammunition to Ukraine, worried about some environmental and health impacts, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The UK has already sent Ukraine some of the ammunition for use in UK-supplied Challenger tanks, angering Russia.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby pushed back on Russia's anger at the time, telling reporters in March that "this kind of ammunition is fairly commonplace."
"I think what's really going on here is Russia just doesn't want Ukraine to continue to take out its tanks and — and render them inoperative," he said.