Russia carrying out illegal chemical attacks on Ukrainian soldiers

Russian troops are carrying out a systematic campaign of illegal chemical attacks against Ukrainian soldiers, according to a Telegraph investigation.

The Telegraph spoke to a number of Ukrainian soldiers deployed in positions across the front line who detailed how their positions have been coming under near daily attacks from small drones, mainly dropping tear gas but also other chemicals.

The use of such gas, which is known as CS and commonly used by riot police, is banned during wartime under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Ihor, the commander of a Ukrainian reconnaissance team who is deployed near the front line city of Chasiv Yar, in Donetsk Oblast, told The Telegraph: “Nearly every position in our area of the front was getting one or two gas grenades dropped on them a day.”

He said that because of how embedded many Ukrainian troops are now it was difficult for the Russians to attack with conventional artillery or drones firing missiles, adding: “The only way for them to successfully attack us was with gas.”

Even when not lethal or immediately incapacitating, these gas attacks usually cause panic. “Their first instinct is to get out,” Ihor said. They can then be attacked with more conventional weapons.

Two other Ukrainian soldiers, deployed on opposite ends of the front line, spoke of similar experiences.

Mikhail, the commander of an infantry unit deployed in Robotnye, in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, where a Russian offensive is currently under way, said: “Gas masks saved more than one of our lives.”

He said his soldiers were now required to carry their masks with them at all times.

Slava, a senior lieutenant whose unit is deployed near Lyman, in Donetsk Oblast, said some Ukrainian units in his area were coming under “almost daily” gas attacks.

One of these CS gas grenades was provided to The Telegraph for verification by Rebekah Maciorowski, an American combat medic and a qualified nurse serving in the Ukrainian army.

She has been routinely called to provide medical aid to Ukrainian soldiers in the three brigades she works with in Donetsk Oblast after chemical weapon attacks, which she described as “systematic”.

The grenade was originally retrieved by soldiers in the 53rd Mechanised Brigade, one of the brigades with which she works. “My guys retrieved it whilst under fire because nobody believed they were being attacked with chemical weapons,” she said.

Marc-Michael Blum, a chemical weapons expert and former head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons laboratory, confirmed the recovered munition was a K-51 gas grenade, which are typically filled with tear gas.

Other types of chemical gas have also been reported, although the reports could not be independently verified by The Telegraph.

Ms Maciorowski said that she attended one incident last year caused by what she suspected was hydrogen cyanide, a deadly, colourless gas used as a chemical weapon by the West in the First World War.

A Russian drone dropped two munitions containing an unknown gas that had a “crushed almond aroma” on soldiers in Donetsk Oblast, she said.

Two people were killed and 12 required hospital treatment. In an interview with Le Monde in JanuaryYuriy Belousov, the head of investigations for Ukraine’s prosecutor general, referred to one of the deaths as being caused by an “unknown gas”.

There have also been reports of the use of chlorine and chloropicrin – a substance typically used as a pesticide that was deployed by the Germans as a chemical weapon in the First World War.

Officially the Ukrainian military has claimed that 626 gas attacks have been carried out by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion.

But Ms Maciorowski believes this is almost certainly a gross underestimate, saying: “Sadly, as it stands right now, the causes of deaths of many Ukrainian soldiers are not properly investigated. There are just so many of them.”

The attacks have become such a feature of Moscow’s tactics that Ukrainian soldiers now have specific training to deal with them.

One training document supplied to The Telegraph detailed a Russian attack on Ukrainian positions close to the city of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, late last year.

Russian drones dropped three chemical grenades, believed to have been filled with CS gas, directly into their dug-in positions. As the soldiers attempted to flee, they were attacked with shells and drones dropping conventional grenades.

The training manual tells soldiers to stay where they are and suffer through the first few minutes of tear gas exposure instead of fleeing their fighting positions. After the first few minutes of exposure, the document says, the effect of the gas weakens.

Compounding the problem is the fact that protective equipment provided is not always provided to Ukrainian soldiers and, when it is, it is often of poor quality.

“We have gas masks, but in almost all cases they’re very old, ex-Soviet models, and they’re not very effective,” said Ihor. Some even have filters that contain asbestos.

Ms Maciorowski said some of the soldiers in her brigades are given no protective equipment at all and have to rely on donations from volunteers or source their own.

The Russians have made little effort to conceal their use of chemical attacks. The Black Sea Fleet’s 810th Naval Infantry Brigade boasted about the deployment of chemical weapons in a post on Telegram in December, posting a video of what it claimed were K-51 gas grenades being dropped on Ukrainian positions.

“Thanks to the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defence troops… for the weapons provided and their timely delivery,” the caption read.

Similarly, a news report aired on the Russian state television station Channel One in May 2023 contained explicit discussion of the issue. One Russian soldier said: “The enemy decided that using gas masks would help. The gas masks don’t help.”

Soldiers’ names have been changed to protect their identities