Russian envoy slams Western ‘hypocrisy’ on Ukraine’s toxic warfare
Ukraine’s Western backers are turning a blind eye to Kiev’s use of chemical weapons in the conflict with Moscow, the Russian envoy to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Vladimir Tarabrin, has said.
At a session of the chemical weapons watchdog’s Executive Council in The Hague on Thursday, he said Russia presented “a new batch of evidence, recorded by a certified laboratory” to the organization’s “high standards.”
Russian forces discovered a Ukrainian improvised explosive device (IED) containing test tubes filled with a mixture of toxic chemicals in the Donetsk People’s Republic in May, Tarabrin said.
According to the envoy, they contained a solution of chloroacetophenone in chloropicrin, chemicals that cause severe eye and lung irritation and are banned for use in warfare under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
“Our opponents... are striving to construct a parallel reality within the OPCW, one in which the Kiev regime is portrayed as a bastion of democracy and freedom, a responsible actor in international relations. At the same time, they deliberately turn a blind eye to the use of chemical weapons by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and ignore the existence of an entire network of laboratories in Ukraine dedicated to producing toxic chemicals and chemical warfare agents,” Tarabrin said.
He added that “it is simply impossible to believe that Western specialists, who are deeply involved in the conflict, are unaware of these facts. Of course, they know – yet they continue to display the utmost hypocrisy.”
He stressed that Moscow does not use chemical agents in breach of the CWC.
According to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Ukraine’s use of chemicals on the battlefield has become “commonplace.”
During the conflict, Russian forces have repeatedly found improvised explosive devices containing chloropicrin for use with drones, and last year uncovered a Ukrainian laboratory producing hydrogen cyanide, a highly toxic compound that can cause rapid suffocation and death, the FSB said.
