Gas from Above: How UAVs Are Bringing Chemical Warfare Back to the Battlefield in Ukraine

Small Wars Journal | Patrick Senft

Russian and Ukrainian combatants are deploying commercial unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver chemical munitions on the battlefield, marking the first large-scale tactical integration of drone-dropped irritants in active combat. This emerging method bypasses traditional defenses by dropping gas grenades directly into fortified positions to incapacitate soldiers and force them into the open.

Historically, defense contractors developed these delivery systems for domestic riot control, but the stagnation of the frontline has driven both militaries to adapt the technology for offensive trench-clearing operations. Combatants frequently employ Soviet-era K-51 and newly manufactured Russian RG-Vo (РГ-Во) grenades containing CS or CN tear gas, often coordinating these drops with secondary explosive drone strikes or artillery barrages to target fleeing personnel. Although classified as less-lethal riot control agents, their battlefield deployment directly violates the international Chemical Weapons Convention, to which both nations are states parties, raising significant legal challenges and escalating the overall brutality of the invasion of Ukraine.

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Deploying the newly manufactured RG-Vo gas grenade via quadcopter platforms demonstrates how Russian tactical doctrine has formalised the use of irritant agents to solve the tactical deadlock of entrenched positions. This low-cost aerial dispersal method, which pairs the RG-Vo with FPV kamikaze drones, converts standard riot control agents into highly lethal force multipliers. By systematically utilising these aerosol delivery systems to flush defenders into open terrain, Russian forces are establishing a precedent that erodes the normative boundaries established by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

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