Annemiek Dols
Despite being a founding member of the Chemical Weapons Convention, Russia is intensifying its weaponisation and use of riot control agents and industrial chemicals in Ukraine. These developments show that preventing the use and proliferation of chemical weapons remains an international concern.
Russia has used banned chemicals on the battlefield in Ukraine – violating international law – in an attempt to break through front lines. The use of toxic chemicals as a weapon, including the use of riot control agents (RCAs) outside civilian law enforcement, is banned under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The convention bans the use of chloropicrin – an industrial chemical, but also a recognised choking agent, and more toxic than RCAs – as a weapon as well. Germany first used chloropicrin during the First World War. The Soviet Union also used it against protesters in Georgia in 1989.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Federation inherited the Soviet chemical-weapons arsenal. Officially declared to consist of 40,000 tonnes in 1997 – the world’s largest chemical-weapons stockpile of all time – it included sarin, soman and VX. In September 2017, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) declared that Russia had destroyed all its chemical weapons. However, questions soon resurfaced about Russia’s undeclared capabilities, as assassinations with chemical agents and efforts to disguise the programme confirmed Russia’s possession of banned chemicals.
Chemical warfare in Ukraine
Ukraine first reported on Russia’s use of RCAs and industrial chemicals in September 2022. These allegations resurfaced in May 2023 when a Russian battalion commander, Vladislav Vodolazsky, claimed to have dropped grenades containing chemical-warfare agents on Ukrainian soldiers. In April 2024, Kyiv reported that the Russian military had used tear gas on the eastern front in Ukraine. Russia’s sourcing of critical components for chemical-weapons production continued until at least May 2024, with its Scientific Research Institute for Applied Chemistry – another body linked with the programme – purchasing pyrotechnic moderators. In June 2024, the US accused Russia of using banned chemicals, chloropicrin in particular, in a manner that ‘is not an isolated incident’. Consequently, the US government sanctioned three Russian bodies linked to the Russian chemical-weapons programme. This included the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops unit, partly responsible for the use of chemicals in the war with Ukraine, and its head, lieutenant-general Igor Kirillov (who was killed by a bomb in Moscow in December 2024).
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