Ukraine ‘pleads for gas masks’ as Russia accused of using banned chemical agents
Ukrainians are “crying out for gas masks” as Russia steps up its use of banned chemical weapons to dislodge Kyiv’s troops and make tactical gains on the battlefield, according to a UK commander.
The US State Department has accused Russia of using chloropicrin, a choking agent, and riot control agents, or tear gas, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of UK and Nato CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) Forces, said Russia’s use of proscribed chemical warfare agents was having a profound effect on the battlefield.
“They’re designed to incapacitate people, but how the Russians are using them is pretty cynical … they’re firing them into the trenches – and a lot, I mean thousands of times,” he told i.
“And because the Ukrainian soldiers either don’t have gas masks or have old Soviet gas masks, which are rubbish and don’t work against these agents, they’re having to flee their trenches and the Russians then attack them conventionally.
“It’s hugely effective, and it’s illegal.”
Reports suggest chemicals known as CS and CN, forms of tear gas, have been used in the Ukraine conflict.