Overview
- Ukrainian investigators said they recovered an unexploded R-60 air-to-air missile near the village of Kamka in Chernihiv Oblast in April and recorded a gamma dose rate of about 12 microsieverts per hour at the wreckage.
- The Security Service of Ukraine opened a pre-trial criminal investigation for war crimes and, together with emergency and military units, moved the warhead to a radioactive waste storage facility for secure containment.
- The SBU warned civilians to avoid fragments of drones, missiles or other munitions because burned or damaged depleted uranium parts can create fine, slightly radioactive and chemically toxic dust that poses health risks with cumulative exposure.
- Some outlets reported the R-60 had been mounted on a modified Geran-2 kamikaze drone, a detail that the SBU has cited in statements but that remains more limited in independent sourcing.
- The discovery fits wider concerns about Soviet-era weapons that use depleted uranium, recalls past UNEP warnings about long-term contamination in Ukraine, and could prompt expanded monitoring, decontamination and legal evidence-gathering.