The United States, Ukraine, and other Western allies are investigating claims that the Russian military used a drone to drop a chemical agent that sickened several people in Mariupol as part of Moscow’s relentless effort to eviscerate the besieged port city.
A city government adviser said Tuesday that officials believed the chemical, described as a “poisonous substance of unknown origin,” was dropped on the Azovstal steel plant, one of the few areas left in Mariupol not under complete control of Russian forces.
City adviser Pyotr Andryushchenko said authorities “don’t know for sure if it was poison or something else.”
The alleged chemical used caused respiratory problems and neurological symptoms in a handful of soldiers and civilians, Ukrainian military commanders said.
ABRAMOVICH, UKRAINIAN PEACE NEGOTIATORS SUFFERED POISONING SYMPTOMS: REPORT
News of the alleged attack came after a Russia-allied separatist official appeared to urge the use of chemical weapons.
Eduard Basurin told Russian state TV on Monday that separatist forces should seize the plant by first blocking all the exits.
“Then we’ll use chemical troops to smoke them out of there,” he said.
The reports of chemical weapons, though unverified, are being treated seriously by Western officials, who have warned for weeks that Russia may turn to unconventional methods to bolster its chances after facing significant pushback from an outmanned and outgunned Ukrainian army.
Officials from the U.S., Britain, and Australia said they would be monitoring the situation and warned that if reports that Russia used chemical weapons were true, there would be consequences.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby called the reports “deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently tapped Gen. Aleksandr Dvornikov to head Russia’s military campaign in eastern Ukraine.
Dvornikov, dubbed the “Butcher of Syria,” oversaw Moscow’s brutal intervention that helped Syrian President Bashar Assad crush his own countrymen. During that time, chemical weapons and indiscriminate air strikes were used to kill civilians.
Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Russian troops stormed into cities and towns, targeting schools, hospitals, and public transportation. In the seven weeks since the war began, thousands have been killed, and more than 4.1 million residents have fled their homes.
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On Tuesday, Putin said peace talks with Ukraine had reached a “dead end” and called the mounting evidence of Russian atrocities in places like Bucha “fake.”
