Russia is using chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops to create panic before it attacks: report

BUSINESS INSIDER:  Russia is launching daily attacks on Ukrainian positions using prohibited chemical weapons, The Telegraph has reported.

The report, citing front-line Ukrainian troops, says Russian forces are using the weapons in a bid to create panic before launching attacks on Ukrainian positions.

It says Russia is using drones to drop grenades filled with CS gas, a chemical agent whose use in war is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The commander of a Ukrainian reconnaissance team who's deployed near the front-line city of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk, east Ukraine, told The Telegraph that Russian forces were finding it difficult to dislodge Ukrainian forces using artillery, so were using poison gas.

"Their first instinct is to get out," the commander, named Ihor, said of Ukrainian troops subjected to the attacks, meaning they could then be attacked by other weapons after breaking cover.

A chemical-weapons expert, Marc-Michael Blum, verified that a grenade used by Russia on the battlefield was a CS gas canister, The Telegraph report says.

The report also cites unverified claims that Russia was using deadlier chemical agents, including chlorine, chloropicrin, and hydrogen cyanide, all of which can be fatal.

Ukraine on Friday said it had recorded 1,412 cases in which harmful chemical substances were discovered in ammunition from February 2023 to March 2024.

It said the attacks were becoming more frequent.

Ukraine's armed forces said in a Facebook post that in March, there were 371 cases, 90 more than during the previous period.

Business Insider has contacted Russia's ministry of defense for comment.

Last year, a Russian military unit, Black Sea Fleet's 810th Naval Infantry Brigade, openly boasted of using CS gas in attacks on Ukrainian troops, posting a video of gas canisters being dropped by drones to smoke out Ukrainian troops from their positions, the Kyiv Post reported.

Ukrainian forces are battling to prevent Russia from breaking through its defensive positions in the east and south of the country.

Russia is intensifying its attacks, with Ukrainian forces running low on ammunition amid the block of a $60 billion US aid bill by Republicans in Congress.

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the US to approve more funding and warned that Ukraine would "lose the war" without it.