Ukraine Plotting Chemical Weapons Provocation Amid Battlefield Failures – Russia’s OPCW Envoy

Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense troops of the Russian Armed Forces, earlier said that Moscow had recorded a whole array of cases of Ukrainian troops using US chemical munitions during the special military operation.

The Kiev regime may stage a provocation with the use of chemical agents against the backdrop of its frontline flops, Vladimir Tarabrin, Russia’s permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), told reporters.

"Given that the situation on the battlefield is developing unfavorably for Kiev, we can expect the Ukrainian neo-Nazis to go all lengths and continue organizing various kinds of provocations, including those related to the use of toxic substances," Tarabrin said, in an apparent nod to Russian forces’ advance in several frontline areas.

He added that Russian troops had repeatedly recorded cases of the Ukrainian Armed Forces using chemical munitions, including riot control agents, in the special military operation. "Various toxic chemicals were also used, among them those produced in the US," the OPCW envoy noted.

Tarabrin also said that Russia "regularly reports information on the supply of listed and non-listed toxic chemicals to Ukraine from the US and its NATO allies to the OPCW’s technical secretariat."

The envoy pointed out that these deliveries are carried out by "professional mercenaries and intelligence services of Western countries." In addition, Moscow provides data on the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ provocations with the use of toxic substances, partly planned and carried out by Western intelligence services, Tarabrin concluded.

Echoing him was Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense troops of the Russian Armed Forces, who earlier told reporters that during the ongoing special military operation, "cases of US chemical weapons used by Ukrainian troops have been registered."

He recalled that in particular, the Ukrainian military used the US-made chemical grenades dropped from drones several times against the Russian Armed Forces in 2023, while in January this year, Ukrainian units used an unknown toxic chemical against the Russian troops that led to burns, nausea and vomiting.

Kirillov stressed that the very fact of the supply of such ammunition by the US in a military conflict is a violation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.

The document obliges any signatory to "never, under any circumstances, directly or indirectly transfer chemical weapons to anyone."