Gasping, choking. On Ukraine’s frontline, the country’s soldiers report what statistics show: a persistent use of chemical weapons, mostly teargas, whose deployment on the battlefield is illegal. The US and UK go further in their accusations and say Russia is using another toxic agent, chloropicrin, first employed to gruesome effect in the trenches of the first world war.
Behind the effort are the radiological, chemical and biological defence troops of the Russian ministry of defence, known as RKhBZ. The US and UK say they are a specialised unit, responsible in part for the use of chemicals on the battlefield, and their head was Igor Kirillov, killed in Moscow by a bomb hidden in a scooter, in an attack that was carried out by Kyiv.
Ukraine says 4,800 uses of chemical weapons by Russia have been documented since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, and more than 2,000 people hospitalised. Multiple media reports, citing soldiers’ testimony, report that small first-person view (FPV) drones are used to drop gas grenades on Ukrainian positions, choking unprotected soldiers or forcing them into the open so they can be picked off.
In May, the US said Russia was using teargas and other riot control agents on the battlefield – and also chloropicrin. Banned by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the battlefield, chloropicrin is a faint yellow liquid that, when released near human beings, causes choking, dizziness, intense eye pain, skin irritation, vomiting and, in the most severe cases, death.
The US state department said: “The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident, and is probably driven by Russian forces’ desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield.” It went on to announce sanctions against the Russian RKhBZ unit.
In October, the UK went further. David Lammy, the foreign secretary, and John Healey, the defence secretary, accused Russia of breaching the chemical weapons convention and imposed sanctions on both the unit and Kirillov himself. “Russia’s cruel and inhumane tactics on the battlefield are abhorrent,” Lammy said, and the UK also said chloropicrin was among the chemical agents used.
A study by the Kyiv Independent published in August, based on data released by Ukrainian officials, suggested the battlefield use of chemical agents was increasing in the first half of this year. It said there were 81 reported incidents in December 2023, rising to 715 in May, though numbers dropped again as the winter loomed, falling to 166 cases, according to Ukrainian data.
Hours before Kirillov’s death, Ukraine’s SBU internal security service released its own report online that concluded that the Russians are using chemical weapons “mainly in the hottest areas of combat, where they are trying to hide the use of chemical agents under dense artillery fire”.
Russia has denied using chemical weapons in Ukraine, with Kirillov himself responsible for many of the denials. “Russia destroyed all stockpiles of chemical weapons in September 2017,” the general said in February, though allegations about the use of novichok on Sergei Skripal and Alexei Navalny point to the contrary. Kirillov also claimed that Russia found a chemical weapons laboratory near Avdiivka in Ukraine, though the claim has never been verified.
Until recently, official inquiries by the OPCW on either side have been limited, partly because to act the international body needs to be invited by either Russia or Ukraine to investigate. The use of chloropicrin has not been proven by the OPCW, but last month, after a visit to Ukraine, the watchdog said evidence for the use of a type of teargas was conclusive for the first time.
“The analyses by the OPCW designated laboratories, conducted separately and independently from one another, confirm that the grenade and soil samples collected from the trench contain the riot control agent 2-Chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile known as CS,” the body reported. Under the chemical weapons convention signed by Russia, it added, “the use of riot control agents as a method of warfare is prohibited”.
