{"id":560167,"date":"2026-07-16T13:49:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T10:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=560167"},"modified":"2026-07-16T14:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:32:22","slug":"sbu-russia-used-drones-carrying-depleted-uranium-munitions-in-strike-on-sumy-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/sbu-russia-used-drones-carrying-depleted-uranium-munitions-in-strike-on-sumy-region","title":{"rendered":"SBU: Russia Used Drones Carrying Depleted Uranium Munitions in Strike on Sumy Region"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Russia used munitions containing depleted uranium during an attack on Ukraine&#8217;s Sumy region in April 2026, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The agency and military counterintelligence said they had documented two new cases.<\/p>\n<p>The statement concerns R-60M air-to-air missiles, which Russia is using as warheads for its drones.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cWhile investigators and specialists from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine were working at the sites of the enemy strikes, gamma radiation levels measured on the debris of Russian drones carrying the missiles reached 8.3 and 10.5 \u03bcSv\/h. These readings significantly exceed the natural background radiation level and pose a direct threat to human health.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Based on an examination initiated by the Security Service, it was established that the warhead of the Russian missiles contains striking elements made of depleted uranium with a total mass of 2,810 grams. The substance was identified as uranium-234, uranium-235 and uranium-238,\u201d<\/i> the SBU <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/SBUkr\/18102\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The SBU has opened a pre-trial investigation into alleged war crimes under Article 438 of Ukraine&#8217;s Criminal Code.<\/p>\n<p>The SBU had previously reported the <a href=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/sbu-radioactive-materials-found-in-debris-of-russian-missile-in-chernihiv-region\">use of depleted uranium munitions in the Chernihiv region<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_560152\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-560152\" style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-560152\" src=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/photo_2026-07-16_13-48-33.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/photo_2026-07-16_13-48-33.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/photo_2026-07-16_13-48-33-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/photo_2026-07-16_13-48-33-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/photo_2026-07-16_13-48-33-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/photo_2026-07-16_13-48-33-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-560152\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: SBU<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia used munitions containing depleted uranium during an attack on Ukraine&#8217;s Sumy region in April 2026, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The agency and military counterintelligence said they had documented two new cases. The statement concerns R-60M air-to-air missiles, which Russia is using as warheads for its drones. \u201cWhile investigators and specialists [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":560166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a58c14bccde0.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"SBU: Russia Used Drones Carrying Depleted Uranium Munitions in Strike on Sumy Region"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143291,143284],"tags":[143121,143122,143123],"class_list":["post-560167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-army","category-world","tag-rossijsko-ukrainskaja-vojna","tag-rossija","tag-ukraina"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}