Russia Using Chemical Weapons

An RT journalist showed how Russian troops use chemical weapons in Ukraine. The Kremlin denies the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine throughout the war

Journalist for the Russian state news agency RT Andrei Filatov showed how Russian troops “smoked out” a Ukrainian machine gunner from a position in the Avdeevka area. Filatov admitted to using chemical weapons — gas grenades — by the Russian Armed Forces, ASTRA noted. The video was published by the official telegram channel RT.

“Here you can see the gas mask that was hanging on the machine gunner. Zincs from cartridges. Here is a gas grenade that we dropped,” says Filatov in his report.

Filatov showed, presumably, a Russian gas grenade RG-VO (a hand grenade is a poisonous substance). According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the RG-VO contains the poisonous gas chloroacetophenone. This gas is on List 1 of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Symptoms of chloroacetophenone poisoning include excessive vomiting and lacrimation, as well as skin irritation.

According to Filatov, the Ukrainian position was taken by Russian troops on December 1, 2023. The RT post notes that “previously it was impossible to publish these frames for security reasons.” The use of RG-VO grenades by the Russian army of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was first reported in the same month.

Z-blogger Vladimir Romanov also spoke about the use of the RG-VO grenade by the Russian side.

“Meet, this is RG-VO. A very effective gas grenade. By dropping it from a copter, it helps to quickly smoke the enemy out of cover,” he wrote in his Telegram channel at the end of 2023.

In early May, the US State Department accused Russia of using chloropicrin gas against Ukrainian troops in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov then responded that “as always, such accusations sound absolutely unfounded and are not supported by anything.”