Ukrainian
servicemen of 79th brigade take part in training, amid Russia's attack
on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Oleksandr
Ratushniak/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Russia breached global chemical weapons ban in Ukraine war, US says
WASHINGTON,
May 1 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday accused Russia of
violating the international chemical weapons ban by deploying the
choking agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops and using riot
control agents "as a method of warfare" in Ukraine.
"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," the
State Department said in a statement.
The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chloropicrin
is listed as a banned choking agent by the Hague-based Organization for
the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which was created to
implement and monitor compliance with the 1993 Chemical Weapons
Convention (CWC).
German forces fired the gas against Allied troops during World War I in one of the first uses of a chemical weapon.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported
the Ukrainian military as saying Russia has stepped up its illegal of
use riot control agents as it presses its biggest advances in eastern
Ukraine in more than two years.
In
addition to chloropicrin, Russian forces have used grenades loaded with
CS and CN gases, the Ukrainian military says. It says at least 500
Ukrainian soldiers have been treated for exposure to toxic substances
and one was killed by suffocating on tear gas.
While
civilians usually can escape riot control gases during protests,
soldiers stuck in trenches without gas masks must either flee under
enemy fire or risk suffocating.
The
State Department said it was delivering to Congress its determination
that Russia's use of chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops violated the
CWC.
Moscow's use of the gas "comes from the same playbook as its operations to poison" the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020 and Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in 2018 with the Novichok nerve agent, the statement said.
Russia denied involvement in both cases.
The
department also determined that Russia has breached the CWC's
prohibition on the use of riot control agents as a method of warfare,
the statement said.
It
said it was sanctioning three Russian state entities linked to Moscow's
chemical and biological weapons programs, including a specialized
military unit that facilitated the use of chloropicrin against Ukrainian
troops.
Four Russian companies that support the three entities were also sanctioned, it said.
The
sanctions freeze any U.S. assets belonging to the targeted entities and
generally prohibit Americans from doing business with them.
Separately,
the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on three entities and two
individuals involved in purchasing items for Russian military institutes
involved in the country's chemical and biological weapons programs.
The sanctions were among new measures announced by the United States on Wednesday targeting Russia over its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The
CWC bans the production and use of chemical weapons. It also requires
the 193 countries that have ratified the convention, which include
Russia and the U.S., to destroy any stocks of banned chemicals.
The State Department was expected to convey its determination that Russia has violated the CWC to the OPCW.
Russia
and Ukraine have accused each other of breaching the treaty in OPCW
meetings. But the organization says it has not been formally asked to
open an investigation into the use of prohibited substances in Ukraine.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify the use of banned chemical substances by either side.
Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Daniel Wallis