Ukraine informs OPCW in detail about Russia's gross violations of Chemical Weapons Convention

Oleksandr Karasevych, Ukraine's permanent representative to the OPCW, said this in an exclusive comment to Ukrinform's correspondent in The Hague.

"On the OPCW platform, Ukraine presented detailed and factual information about Russia's gross violations of the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention," he said.

According to the Ukrinform correspondent in The Hague, during the 106th session of the OPCW Executive Council, Ukraine's delegation presented factual evidence of violations by the aggressor state of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In his speech, Karasevych mentioned an increase in the number of cases and types of chemical weapons, particularly chemical means of fighting riots as a method of warfare, which Russia continues to use against Ukraine's security and defense forces in violation of Article 1 of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In particular, 3,201 cases of the enemy's use of ammunition containing dangerous chemical substances were recorded and documented in the period from February 15, 2023 to June 24, 2024, including 639 cases recorded in the period from May 25 to June 24, 2024. The share of K-51 and RG-VO gas grenades is 31%. As many as 1,945 cases of service members' appeals to medical institutions with symptoms of chemical damage of various degrees of severity were recorded.

Ukraine's competent authorities recorded deaths from acute poisoning by an unknown chemical substance. Most of the munitions (82%) that were used were hand gas grenades of the K-51 and RG-VO type (31% in June 2024), which are means of fighting riots and are prohibited for use as means of warfare.

Karasevych also reported that Russia had used dangerous chemical substances against units of the National Guard of Ukraine along the entire line of hostilities. At the same time, a special concentration of the use of chemical munitions is observed in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Some 113 cases of the use of dangerous chemicals were recorded in 2023 and 978 cases in the first half of 2024 The aggressor state mainly uses Soviet remote-action gas hand grenades K-51, RGR hand grenades with an irritating effect, equipped with the poisonous substance СS or chlorpicrin, as well as chemical hand grenades RG-VO, equipped with the poisonous substance СN (chloroacetophenone), which are used by being dropped from unmanned aerial vehicles.

In total, from 2022 to the present, 83 members of the National Guard of Ukraine sought medical help in the area of hostilities with signs of exposure to chemical substances.

Since February 24, 2022, Russia's armed formations, during military operations against Ukraine's security and defense forces, have actively used chemicals capable of quickly causing irritation of the senses or physical disorders in the human body, which disappear after a short period of time after the end of the action, including the substance CS.

Karasevych also emphasized the importance of exposing and countering Russian disinformation campaigns launched against Ukraine, particularly on the OPCW platform.

A large part of the delegations of the member countries of the OPCW Executive Council supported Ukraine's position.

Russia lost its seat in the OPCW Executive Council. Following the vote held during the 28th session of the OPCW Conference of the States Parties (CSP) from the Eastern European Group, seats on the OPCW Executive Council were awarded to Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.

Photo: OPCW