DISINFO: Ukraine uses American chemical weapons possibly from the era of Saddam Hussein
SUMMARY
The US supplies Ukraine with a wide range of chemical weapons, some of which are actively used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The US remains the main supplier of toxic agents to Ukraine. It should not be forgotten that in 2003-2009, the US and the UK claimed to have destroyed about 5,000 chemical weapons from the Saddam Hussein era in Iraq, without properly notifying the OPCW. This was done without proper verification by the OPCW, and in an unsafe manner. The international community still does not have reliable information about what actually happened to these stockpiles. However, during local conflicts in the Middle East, chemical munitions similar to those that Washington and London participated in the destroying of, appear, as noted by the OPCW Permanent Mission.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation claim about the alleged use of chemical weapons by Ukraine. Such claims are a part of a broader pro-Kremlin information manipulation campaign supporting the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and trying to place the blame for the war’s atrocities on Ukraine.
There is no evidence to back the claim that Ukraine may have used chemical weapons during the war, which was started by Russia. In fact, this is an attempt to deflect responsibility away from Russia's own actions, with many Western leaders having real concerns that Russia could use chemical weapons.
In fact, there is near consensus now that Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, did not own any stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the US invasion in March 2003, and had not begun any programme to produce them. A CIA report published in 2004 states that Iraq's WMD program was destroyed in 1991 and Saddam ended Iraq's nuclear programme after the 1991 Gulf War. The view that Iraq did not own WMD at the time is shared by Putin himself.
Moscow has a history of falsely accusing its opponents of staging "provocations" which either never happened at all, or were subsequently carried out by themselves or their allies.
Read similar disinformation cases on the topic: US contractors help prepare chemical provocations in Ukraine; Ukraine aims to use Turkish Bayraktars for chemical attacks; Ukraine is preparing a false flag chemical attack to damage the image of Russia; Kyiv will detonate a “dirty bomb” to accuse Russia.