Russian drones are increasingly dropping gas grenades into Ukrainian shelters or trenches to force Ukrainian soldiers into the open field where they are easy prey for artillery and drone attacks. According to Vlasiuk, his unit registered 323 such gas attacks in October, and in the majority of incidents the gas could be identified. Now Vlasiuk complains that Ukraine is no longer able to identify most gases.
According to the colonel, this is because the Ukrainian armed forces do not have advanced high-end detector technology. Ukraine needs “hundreds” of complex detectors, each costing $100,000 to $600,000, to better identify what exactly is being used by Russian forces, according to the colonel. According to Vlasiuk, it has proven difficult to generate Western interest in supplying these advanced detectors to Ukraine; things like ammunition are considered a priority.
‘Russian forces use chemical weapons on an industrial scale’
Detectors
With the right detectors, identifying chemicals is “very easy,” says Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former commander of the United Kingdom’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment. He estimates that Ukraine will need “a few hundred” handheld detectors costing roughly $10,000 to $50,000 each. “Russian forces are using chemical weapons on an industrial scale,” said De Bretton-Gordon, who estimates that 30 percent of Ukraine’s frontline troops have suffered chemical attacks.
Ukraine says it has registered more than 4,600 attacks with Russian gas on the battlefield since the invasion began in 2022. According to Vlasiuk, the types of gas identified so far are CS and CS tear gas, as well as ammonia and chloropicrin. The use of these chemical agents, including tear gas, on the battlefield is a violation of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.
War tool
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a United Nations watchdog, considers tear gas “a chemical weapon when used as a means of war.” “We can detect CS, but if the enemy uses something else that is more complex, newer, or a mixture that is similar in composition but is not CS, we cannot identify it,” Vlasiuk said. According to the colonel, this makes it difficult to collect evidence to show to Western allies.
The latest reports of gas use come from the Kursk region in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, with Ukrainian soldiers reporting to The Kyiv Independent that they had suffered gas attacks on their position in Kursk, sometimes several times a day. Identification of the gas is important for treating symptoms.
Use confirmed
The US and UK have confirmed Russia’s use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers and imposed sanctions on Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces, their chief, the Russian Defense Ministry’s scientific centers and the companies involved. But the OPCW, which according to Vlasiuk has “almost impossible” requirements for providing evidence, has not confirmed Russia’s use of chemical weapons on the battlefield.
The OPCW said in May that Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of using chemical weapons, but “the information provided to the Organization by both sides to date, together with the information available to the Secretariat, is not sufficiently substantiated.”
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