The US State Department has accused Vladimir Putin of using chemical agents on Ukrainian troops. Multiple news outlets report that the agents are specifically banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which Russia is a signatory to. The Kremlin states that the claims are baseless, but US officials stated the use of the choking chemical chloropicrin is not an isolated occurrence.
The weapons are used to dislodge Ukrainian troops from defensive positions. The gas was originally used in World War 1 as a poison. Russia has an enormous supply of the chemical.
The accusation of war crimes was announced as a part of 300 new sanctions against Russia and others for the murder of Aleksey Navalny, who was killed in Siberia, and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, England.
The BBC writes on the breaking news:
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a global watchdog that oversees implementation of the CWC, says a chemical weapon is a substance used to cause intentional death or harm through its toxic properties.
Chloropicrin - which the US says Russia has used to "dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions" - is an oily substance which was widely used during WW1. It causes irritation of the lungs, eyes and skin and can cause vomiting, nausea and diarrhoea, according to the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
The chemical's use in war is expressly banned under the CWC, and is listed as a choking agent by the OPCW.
The state department also said Moscow has regularly used "riot control agents," or tear gas, during the war.
President Joe Biden has previously warned Russia against deploying chemical weapons in Ukraine. In March 2022, just weeks after Moscow launched its invasion, Mr Biden vowed that President Vladimir Putin would pay a "severe price" if he did authorise the use chemical weapons.
The State Department also mentioned that tear gas was used in Ukraine, a gas frequently used against American civilians currently on full display against students and earth protectors such as the Standing Rock protests in the United States and Palestinian protests at American universities, Black Lives Matter, and Occupy Wall Street are just a few instances. Tear gas is a banned substance for war, but police routinely gas people in this country with zero ramifications despite it being a war crime.
Chloropicrin was widely used as a chemical warfare agent in World War I, but is no longer authorized for military use, and is now mostly used in agriculture, according to the CDC. It irritates the lungs, eyes, and skin, and can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea lasting for weeks, according to the CDC.
Under a 1991 law against the use of chemical and biological warfare, the State Department is “re-imposing restrictions on foreign military financing, US Government lines of credit, and export licenses for defense articles and national security-sensitive items going to Russia,” it said on Wednesday.
It added that it is sanctioning three Russian government entities linked to the country’s chemical and biological weapons programs and four Russian companies that contributed to those government bodies.
The announcement was part of a tranche of nearly 300 new sanctions against companies and figures in multiple countries for their support of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including China, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Russian forces used used chemical munitions in the area of Novodanylivka in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast on Sunday, the Ukrainian military said on Monday.
“The enemy continues to use chemical munitions, violating all conventions,” said General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the commander of the Tavria operational-strategic group of troops.
The Russians launched two artillery strikes from MLRS with munitions containing a chemical substance (presumably chloropicrin) in the area of Novodanylivka yesterday.
However, there were no casualties or injuries.