Ukraine says Russia keeps putting uranium in the drones it fires at Chernihiv Oblast, the only region of the country that borders both Russia and Belarus. Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) documented six more cases of Russian forces using munitions with uranium components against Ukraine, found in Geran-2 attack drones that struck Chernihiv Oblast between April and June 2026.
The findings extend a pattern EP first reported in May, when the SBU found depleted-uranium striking elements in a Geran-2 warhead near Chernihiv.
Russia mounts old Soviet R-60 air-to-air missiles on the Geran-2 drones, and the uranium sits in those missiles' warheads. The purpose is the arms race in the sky: the R-60 turns a strike drone into an air-to-air weapon meant to kill the Ukrainian aircraft and helicopters that intercept incoming drone swarms. What the SBU is now documenting is that the radioactive warhead configuration is not a one-off but a recurring feature of the strikes.
The radiation readings are the concrete findings. During inspection of the drone impact sites and radiological survey of the warheads, an SBU investigative group and State Emergency Service specialists recorded radiation up to 80 times the natural background, with gamma readings on individual drone fragments running from 8.3 to 24 microsieverts per hour against a permissible sanitary norm of 0.3.
What SBU claims, and one caution on isotopes
The SBU's forensic account is specific. Its expert examination found the missile warheads contained nuclear material identified as Uranium-235 and Uranium-238, confirmed with dosimetric equipment and a mobile automated radiological complex. The agency opened a criminal case under Article 438 of Ukraine's Criminal Code, on war crimes, and neutralized the munitions.
Depleted uranium is dangerous mainly as dust and as toxin
The health risk from these munitions is real but specific, and worth stating precisely to neither understate nor inflate it. Depleted uranium's principal hazards are chemical toxicity as a heavy metal and the radioactive dust released when a round burns or shatters, rather than penetrating radiation from an intact fragment.
That is why the SBU has issued a warning about handling. The service urged citizens who find fragments of drones, missiles, or other munitions not to approach, touch, or move them, but to move to a safe distance and report the find to the SBU hotline at 1516, the State Emergency Service at 101, or the National Police at 102.
Damaged or burned munitions pose the greatest danger, as they may release radioactive dust hazardous to people and the environment. A gamma reading of 24 microsieverts per hour is roughly 80 times background and enough to flag debris as hazardous to anyone in prolonged contact, though a single brief exposure at that level is far below the dose that causes acute harm.
