Tranquillus in Exile
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Warnings from the US of “clear signs” that Russia is considering using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine have raised the spectre of gas attacks.
US intelligence has been remarkably accurate in predicting Russia’s actions in the war so far, and the timing of the latest warning raises concerns for the fate of Mariupol. The city has held out for almost a month against relentless shelling that has reduced much of it to ruins. Power, food, water and medical supplies have been cut off, yet still defenders refuse to surrender. It is the sort of scenario where many observers fear Putin could turn to weapons of mass destruction.
Mariupol is a strategic port, but at this point its significance may lie more in Putin’s need for something he can sell to Russians as a victory. It is far short of his original war aims, but the Russian military is struggling and it might be enough for him to negotiate a peace deal and believe he can still cling to power.
The first Russian use of chemical weapons came not on foreign soil but in Moscow in 2002, when Chechen militants seized a theatre and took 850 people hostage. Russian security forces pumped a chemical agent into the theatre, killing all 40 militants and 130 of the hostages.
In 2004 Russia was accused of responsibility for the attempted assassination of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, who was left permanently disfigured after being poisoned with dioxin.
In 2006 Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer and defector, was murdered by Russian agents in London with Polonium-210, a highly radioactive isotope that caused irreversible radiation sickness.
In 2018, Novichok emerged as Russia’s chemical agent of choice when it was used in the failed assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal, a former double agent, and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England. Novichok was used again in the failed 2020 poisoning of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader now in jail.
Even if Russia does not have sufficient stocks for sustained chemical warfare, the sheer potency of agents like Novichok is cause for concern. The small perfume bottle used in the 2018 Skripal poisoning contained enough Novichok to kill several thousand people.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-n...ld-use-chemical-weapons-break-siege-mariupol/
US intelligence has been remarkably accurate in predicting Russia’s actions in the war so far, and the timing of the latest warning raises concerns for the fate of Mariupol. The city has held out for almost a month against relentless shelling that has reduced much of it to ruins. Power, food, water and medical supplies have been cut off, yet still defenders refuse to surrender. It is the sort of scenario where many observers fear Putin could turn to weapons of mass destruction.
Mariupol is a strategic port, but at this point its significance may lie more in Putin’s need for something he can sell to Russians as a victory. It is far short of his original war aims, but the Russian military is struggling and it might be enough for him to negotiate a peace deal and believe he can still cling to power.
The first Russian use of chemical weapons came not on foreign soil but in Moscow in 2002, when Chechen militants seized a theatre and took 850 people hostage. Russian security forces pumped a chemical agent into the theatre, killing all 40 militants and 130 of the hostages.
In 2004 Russia was accused of responsibility for the attempted assassination of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, who was left permanently disfigured after being poisoned with dioxin.
In 2006 Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer and defector, was murdered by Russian agents in London with Polonium-210, a highly radioactive isotope that caused irreversible radiation sickness.
In 2018, Novichok emerged as Russia’s chemical agent of choice when it was used in the failed assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal, a former double agent, and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England. Novichok was used again in the failed 2020 poisoning of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader now in jail.
Even if Russia does not have sufficient stocks for sustained chemical warfare, the sheer potency of agents like Novichok is cause for concern. The small perfume bottle used in the 2018 Skripal poisoning contained enough Novichok to kill several thousand people.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-n...ld-use-chemical-weapons-break-siege-mariupol/
