Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has stated that Russia is intensifying its use of chemical weapons in the war against Ukraine in an attempt to force the country to surrender.

Source: Kallas speaking to journalists in Brussels after a meeting of EU foreign ministers, as reported by Politico

Details: Kallas said Russia had used chemical weapons on Ukrainian territory at least 9,000 times since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. She noted that reports of the widespread use of chemical weapons by Russian forces are based on intelligence from Germany and the Netherlands.

She stated that, according to German and Dutch intelligence, the use of such weapons is only increasing, which is causing serious concern among Western leaders.

"It shows that Russia wants to cause as much pain and suffering so that Ukraine would surrender. And, you know, it's really… unbearable," Kallas said.

For reference: Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention banning the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons on 13 January 1993 and ratified it on 5 November 1997.

On 27 September 2017, Russia announced the complete destruction of its chemical weapons stockpiles. However, less than a year later, in March 2018, Russia's military intelligence used the Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to assassinate Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in the United Kingdom.

Background: 

• Dutch intelligence services have collected evidence of Russia's large-scale use of banned chemical weapons in the war against Ukraine.
• In May 2024, the United States justified its sanctions against Russia by claiming that Russian troops had used a banned chemical agent, chloropicrin, against the Ukrainian armed forces.

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