BREAKING: #Russia Allegedly Unleashes Chemical Weapons On #Ukraine—Details of the assault, via the Telegram messaging app, say a ‘poisonous substance of unknown origin’ has led to the city’s defenders suffering from symptoms including breathing issues, ‘respiratory failure’ and ‘vestibulo-atactic syndrome‘.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said her department is working with partners to verify the claims.
She tweeted: ‘Reports that Russian forces may have used chemical agents in an attack on the people of Mariupol. We are working urgently with partners to verify details.
‘Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold Putin and his regime to account.’
President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted last night that the Russians might deploy chemical weapons, although he fell short of saying they had definitely been used in Mariupol.
The alleged attack came just hours after a pro-Russian general in Donbas appeared to promote the idea of using chemical weapons, telling state media it would ‘smoke the Ukrainian moles out of the underground’.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Parliament tweeted to say it has received reports of Russian forces firing ‘nitric acid’ in the Donetsk region as it warned local residents to wear ‘protective face masks soaked in soda solution’. It is not clear if the incidents are linked.
It follows a warning from the Ministry of Defence suggesting that Russia could turn to the use of a deadly phosphorus bombs amid attempts to finally break heroic resistance in Mariupol.
While strictly not considered a chemical weapon, the substance burns fiercely and can cause horrendous injuries, and its use on civilians constitutes a war crime.
Mariupol has seen the most intense fighting since the Kremlin launched its attack on Ukraine and has suffered more than 10,000 civilian deaths to date, according to its mayor Vadym Boychenko.
He also warned the toll could rise beyond 20,000 and claimed Russian forces are bringing mobile cremation equipment into the city to dispose of bodies.
The mayor’s comments emerged as Russia claimed it destroyed several Ukrainian air-defence systems in what appeared to be a renewed push to gain air superiority and take out weapons described as crucial ahead of what is expected to be a broad new offensive in the east.
Capturing Mariupol, the main eastern port, would allow Moscow to link troops advancing from the east with those from Russian-annexed Crimea in the south and shift their focus to a new attempt to encircle the main Ukrainian force in the east.
Ukrainian marines have already said they are preparing for a ‘last battle’ to control Mariupol after being surrounded by invading Russian forces.
The 36th marine brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces said on Facebook that anyone whose limbs have not been torn off will be ordered to fight, and battles are currently being carried out by cooks, drivers and musicians.
They said earlier today: ‘Today will probably be the last battle, as the ammunition is running out.
‘It’s death for some of us, and captivity for the rest,’ it added, saying it had been ‘pushed back’ and ‘surrounded’ by the Russian army.
It said it had been defending the port for 47 days and ‘did everything possible and impossible’ to retain control of the city.
The troops’ last stand has so far denied the strategically significant city on the south coast to the Russians.
Should Moscow take control, as is now expected, the Kremlin will hold the entire coast along the Sea of Azov and much of the Black Sea.
For weeks the fall of Mariupol has seemed inevitable, yet the Ukrainians have clung on to parts of the city centre. Since early March food supplies have been scarce, melted ice has been the only source of fresh water and there has been no heating or electricity.
The city has effectively been cut off from the rest of the country.
the commanding officer of the 36th Marine Brigade suggested the government in Kyiv could have done more to support his soldiers, adding: ‘We’ve done everything possible and impossible to retain control.
‘But nobody wants to communicate with us anymore because we have been written off.’ The razed city has seen the most intense fighting of the war.
Last night Denis Pushilin, leader of the breakaway Donetsk region, said: ‘Regarding the port of Mariupol, it is already under our control. Now the operation will be intensified.’
His claims could not be independently verified.
Putin’s invasion stalled on several fronts as it met stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces, who prevented the Russians from taking the capital and other cities.
And the failure to win full control of Ukraine’s skies has hampered Moscow’s ability to provide air cover for troops on the ground, limiting their advances and exposing them to greater losses.
With their offensive in many parts of the country thwarted, Russian forces have relied increasingly on bombarding cities – a strategy that has left many urban areas flattened and killed thousands of people.
To date, Kyiv estimates it has killed 19,500 Russian troops, though the Kremlin has only admitted to 1,351 deaths in the conflict.
CREDIT: DAILYMAIL
