By Anthony Deutsch
THE HAGUE (REUTERS) – Dutch and German intelligence services have collected evidence of widespread Russian use of forbidden chemical weapons in Ukraine, including dropping a stitching agent from drones to ride soldiers from trenches so they could be shot, they said on Friday.
Dutch Minister of Defense Ruben Brekelmans called for harder sanctions against Moscow.
“The most important conclusion is that we can confirm that Russia is the use of chemical weapons intensification,” he said Reuters.
“This intensification is worrying because it is part of a trend that we have been observing for several years now, where the use of chemical weapons of Russia in this war is increasingly normalized, standardized and widespread.”
The German BND Foreign Intelligence Service confirmed the findings and said in a statement that it had obtained the evidence in addition to its Dutch counterparts. Reuters first reported on the intelligence.
The head of the Dutch Military Intelligence Agency (MIVD), Peter Reesink, said that the conclusions 'followed our own independent intelligence, so we observed it ourselves on the basis of our own investigations'.
Reuters has not been able not to verify the use of forbidden chemicals on both sides in the Ukraine War on both sides.
The United States accused Russia for the first time of using Chloropicrin, a chemical connection that is more toxic than riot control and was used for the first time by Germany during the First World War, in May last year.
Ukraine claims thousands of cases of the use of Russian chemical weapons.
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request to comment on this article. Russia has denied using illegal ammunition and it has accused Ukraine to do this.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Wednesday that the Federal Security Service has discovered a Ukrainian cache of explosive devices in the east of the country with chloropicrin.
Ukraine has consistently denied such accusations.
The organization for the ban on chemical weapons (OPCW), a disarming agency in The Hague with 193 Member States, said last year that the first accusations that both countries had mentioned on each other were “insufficiently substantiated”.
It was not requested to conduct a full investigation that must be initiated by the Member States.
At least three Ukrainian deaths are linked to the use of chemical weapons, Brekelmans said, while more than 2500 people were injured on the battlefield, chemical weapons -related symptoms reported to the Ukrainian health authorities.
Increased use of chemical weapons by Russia is a threat, not only for Ukraine, but also for other countries, Brekelmans added.
“We have to increase the pressure further. This means looking at more sanctions and does not specifically allow them to participate in international authorities such as the Executive Council of the OPCW,” he said.
Reesink spoke about “thousands of authorities” about the use of chemical weapons, while he also quoted a Ukrainian figure of 9,000.
The rotating two-year seats in the OPCW council will negotiate in the coming months.
The intelligence findings were presented on Friday in a letter to the Dutch Parliament.
Large -scale program
Russia is a member of the OPCW and has, like the United States, destroyed its declared chemical weapons stocks.
Increased sanctions can take place in combination with the European Commission, which has proposed to mention 15 extra new entities and individuals on its sanction frame, including for presumably use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.
The Dutch military and general intelligence services, which collaborate with foreign partners, say that they have discovered concrete evidence of intensified Russian chemical weapon production.
This includes increased research opportunities and the recruitment of scientists for the development of chemical weapons, Reesink said. He added that Russian officials gave instructions to soldiers about the use of toxic warfare.
“This is not just an ad-hoc crafting on the front line; it is really part of a large-scale program. And that is of course also concerning, because if we do not clarify and publish what Russia is doing, it is very likely that these trends will continue,” Reesink said.
He called the use of chemical weapons by Russian forces 'almost standing operational procedure'.
“We have specifically linked the use of chloropicrin to improvised ammunition, such as filled light bulbs and empty bottles that are hung on a drone. When it comes to tear gas, we see that they also convert abuses and convert existing ammunition to act as a carrier for gas,” he said.
Chloropicrin is mentioned as a forbidden stitching agent by OPCW, made to implement and follow compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1997.
It can cause severe irritation for the skin, eyes and respiratory tract. If it is taken, it can cause burns in the mouth and stomach, nausea and vomiting, as well as breathing problems or shortness of breath.
(Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin; Edit by Mike Collett-White and William Maclean)
