19.11.2024, 17h53
Ukraine on Tuesday called for “decisive measures” the day after the publication of a report from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) saying it had discovered banned tear gas in samples provided by kyiv, which accuses Moscow.
“We call on our partners to take decisive action to arrest the aggressor and bring to justice those responsible for the crimes committed,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“Russia’s use of banned chemicals on the battlefield once again demonstrates Russia’s chronic disregard for international law,” he continued.
Russia, for its part, denounced a “fraudulent and highly questionable collection of physical evidence” by OPCW experts.
Physical evidence?
Their report “does not contain any standard data on the place, date and circumstances in which the Organization’s experts obtained the ‘material evidence,'” the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized in a statement.
Without formally denying the use of this gas by its forces, Moscow assured that it had provided “on several occasions technically and scientifically supported evidence” of the use of chemical substances by Ukrainian troops.
KEYSTONE
On Monday, the organization based in The Hague in the Netherlands announced on Monday that it had discovered CS riot tear gas in samples provided by Ukraine, originating from the east-central region of Dnipropetrovsk.
However, the Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the use of riot control agents, including CS gas, “as means of warfare.”
Non was flying
This is the first time that the use of riot gas has been confirmed in areas where fighting is taking place in Ukraine, according to the OPCW, which however stressed that its report “did not seek to identify the source or the ‘origin of the toxic chemical’.
CS gas, non-lethal, causes sensory irritation.
The United Kingdom and the United States have previously accused Russia of using the toxic agent chloropicrin as well as riot control agents against Ukrainian troops in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of using chemical weapons since the Russian invasion 1000 days ago.
The Director General of the OPCW, Fernando Arias, “expressed his deep concern” on Monday, recalling that the member states of the OPCW, including Russia and Ukraine, “are committed never to develop, produce, acquire , stockpile, transfer or use chemical weapons.
