In an urgent address to the world from the US, Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State said, “We have credible sources that Putin’s troops may have used chemical weapons to take charge of the Mariupol port city. However, we cannot confirm for sure.”
VIDEO: The United States has "credible information" that Russia "may use… chemical agents" in its offensive to take the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says pic.twitter.com/EicCvi7RK0
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 13, 2022
Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar stated, “We are probing into this matter and it’s likely that the Russian military may have mixed chemical weapons in their explosives. We yet cannot confirm.”
Russia will at any time cease the port city of Mariupol making it easy to lay control over the land area between Crimea (Russia controlled) and the region in Donbas (eastern Ukraine). On Tuesday evening Putin said that he would continue to unleash the terror on Ukraine until his requests are met.
As per reports from the world’s chemical weapons sentinel OPCW, “The Azov battalion has confirmed that the Russian military has used a drone to drop a poisonous attack on civilians and Ukrainian troops at the port city of Mariupol.”
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said, ” We are watching the war closely and we are concerned by what we have heard that chemical weapons were used in Mariupol, for about 24 hrs media reports have highlighted this fact. 193 OPCW member nations including Ukraine and Russia have signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, its a highly regarded treaty and promise to disarmament since 1997.”
OPCW further added, “The use of such offensive chemical assaults under any circumstance was barred and contrary to the norms of the treaty.”
Anthony Blinken and Hanna Malyar have both stated that they yet can not confirm whether the Russian military has used chemical weapons in their offensive against Ukraine.
