The Armed Forces of Ukraine are planning to use chemical weapons against the civilian population in the Odessa region, the Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response of the Russian Federation said. The “warning” states that Ukraine will poison its own citizens in order to then blame Russia for this.
The Ministry of Health of Russia stated that “on June 18, representatives of the SBU arrived at the Primorsky sanatorium of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine (the settlement of Kurortny, Odessa region), who worked with the management of the institution on the reception, accommodation and provision of medical care to victims of chemical (poisonous) substances ".
In addition, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation published a message stating that “militants of the Ukrainian nationalist battalions are planning to launch rocket attacks from residential areas of Krivoy Rog at the regional hospital.” By these actions, the Ukrainian military, according to the statement of the Ministry of Defense, expects to provoke a return fire in order to accuse Russia of destroying the Ukrainian civilian population.
However, so far, it is Russia that is suspected of using chemical weapons in Ukraine. On April 11, in Mariupol, according to the Azov Regiment, a chemical weapon was struck at the Azovstal plant, which was defended by the Ukrainian military. The regiment said that three soldiers suffered from the effects of a poisonous substance, allegedly dropped from a drone, but did not provide detailed confirmation of this.
In the past, Russia has regularly made propaganda statements about the use of chemical weapons in various countries, and has also accused Western countries of falsifying reports of chemical attacks against civilians. Allegedly, the West did this in order to deliberately blame Russia itself for chemical attacks. In particular, such statements were made in Syria, where since 2013 there have been several chemical attacks using sarin on civilians. UN investigations, as well as independent analysts, revealed that the government of Bashar al-Assad, who was supported by the Russian authorities, was behind the attack. According to analysts from the Conflict Intelligence Team, the Russian Defense Ministry was aware that Bashar al-Assad was preparing a new chemical attack.
