The grueling trench warfare in eastern Ukraine has been met with a new deadly threat: the use of chemical gases, which have become a powerful tool in the arsenal of Russian forces. This “silent killer” allowed the invaders to achieve successes in the area of Chasovy Yar and Bakhmut earlier this year, as well as in the Pokrovsk area 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.
Gas attacks are not a new form of warfare. They were first used in April 1915, when German troops used chlorine against unprotected Allied forces. As they did more than a century ago, the results of gas attacks on Ukrainian battlefields are horrific: soldiers abandon their positions and then become easy targets for Russian artillery and drones.
According to the data, by January 2024, the Ukrainian military had recorded about 600 cases of gas use since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. However, since then, this figure has sharply increased to 4,000. Many units on the front lines face gas attacks 2-3 times a day, most often CS or chloropicrin — poisonous substances developed back in World War I. Despite the fact that these gases are prohibited by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, which both Russia and Ukraine are signatories to, they continue to be used by the aggressor.
Bretton-Gordon notes that Russian forces are using these gases to exhaust and demoralize Ukrainian soldiers. The gas canisters, dropped by drones, make breathing difficult and cause vomiting. Soldiers are forced to leave cover, which makes 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 stresses the importance of equipping Ukrainian soldiers with quality gas masks. The UK, as one of the world's leading manufacturers of respirators, can quickly provide the necessary equipment to protect Ukrainian soldiers from gas attacks. This assistance is critically important and should not be delayed by bureaucratic obstacles.
