U.S. accuses Russia of using chemical weapons in Ukraine

The U.S. State Department has accused Russia of using chloropicrin — one of the chemicals widely used as a poison gas in World War I — against Ukrainian troops in violation of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Washington did not specify where or when Russian forces allegedly used the compound.

The State Department made the announcement while revealing new sanctions against Russia, including against the Russian Armed Forces' Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces. Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov responded by calling Washington’s accusations “absolutely odious and unsubstantiated.”

Since the start of the full-scale war, the Ukrainian military has repeatedly accused Russia of using chemical weapons, including chloropicrin. The Russian Defense Ministry, in turn, regularly responds by accusing Ukraine of using chemical and biological weapons.

In 2017, Russia reported that it had officially destroyed its chemical weapon stockpiles. However, former Russian military officer Sergey Skripal was poisoned in the U.K. in 2018, and the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was poisoned in Russia in 2020. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons subsequently confirmed that in both cases chemical agents from the Novichok group — originally developed in the USSR — were used. Russian authorities have denied involvement in the poisonings.