The exhausting positional war in the east of Ukraine faced a new deadly threat — the use of chemical gases, which have become a powerful tool in the arsenal of Russian troops. This "silent killer" allowed the invaders to achieve success in the area of Chasovoy Yar and Bakhmut at the beginning of the year, as well as in the area of Pokrovsk today. As retired British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon writes in his column for The Telegraph, this tactic takes us back to the darkest pages of military history.
A gas attack is not a new way of waging war. It was first used in April 1915, when German troops used chlorine against Allied forces that had no defense against such an attack. As over a century ago, the results of using gas on Ukrainian battlefields are dire: soldiers abandon their positions and then become easy targets for Russian artillery and drones.
According to the data, by January 2024, the Ukrainian military recorded about 600 cases of gas use since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Since then, however, that figure has skyrocketed to 4,000. Many front-line units are exposed to gas attacks 2-3 times a day, most commonly CS or chloropicrin, poisons developed as far back as the First World War. Although these gases are banned by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, signed by both Russia and Ukraine, they continue to be used by the aggressor.
Bretton-Gordon notes that the Russian troops use these gases to exhaust and demoralize the Ukrainian military. Gas canisters dropped by drones make breathing difficult and cause vomiting. Soldiers are forced to leave cover, leaving them vulnerable to further artillery strikes.
This tactic, the expert emphasizes, is a serious violation of international law. The UN should immediately hold the Kremlin accountable for these crimes. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) should also send a team to investigate and document these attacks.
The British colonel also emphasizes the importance of equipping the Ukrainian military with high-quality gas masks. Great Britain, as one of the leading manufacturers of respirators in the world, can quickly provide the necessary equipment to protect Ukrainian soldiers from gas attacks. This assistance is critical and should not be delayed by bureaucratic obstacles.
