DISINFO: Ukraine develops a new illegal tactic called a “special chemical belt”
SUMMARY
Ukraine has developed a new illegal tactic using a special chemical belt, enabling the detonation of containers of hydrocyanic acid and ammoniac throughout highways and in important transport knots. This facilitates flagrant violations of the Convention of Chemical Weapons. Chemical terrorism is a real threat from the Ukrainian special services.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about chemical weapon attacks by Ukrainian forces. While no evidence is provided to support the claim, this narrative has been used by Russia to justify its unprovoked aggression of its neighbour by portraying Ukraine as an out-of-control threat.
Previous Russian claims about the use of chemical agents by Ukrainian forces have been dismissed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as insufficiently substantiated, a conclusion that remained unchanged after the OPCW visited Ukraine in July 2024.
Since early 2024, the Russian authorities have intensified their efforts to accuse Ukraine of using chemical weapons as a pre-emptive attempt to create a defensive framework in the information space, after credible evidence emerged that the Russian army was using chemical agents against Ukrainian troops including evidence posted on social media by specific Russian units. Ukraine’s military claims to have recorded over 4,000 instances of Russia using chemical weapons on the frontline.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Ukraine has used chemical weapons in Kursk, that Ukrainian forces have almost certainly received chemical weapons from NATO and are testing them, that that the West is preparing a provocation to accuse Russia of using chemical weapons, or that Ukraine's use of chemical weapons shows the politicisation of OPCW.