(London) The British Foreign Secretary announced on Monday that the United Kingdom is trying to verify information about the possible use of chemical weapons in Ukraine by Russian forces in Mariupol, a strategic port city that has been under siege for more than a month. Foreigner.
Posted yesterday at 10:13 PM.
Reports indicate that Russian forces may have used chemical agents in an attack on the residents of Mariupol. “We are working urgently with our partners to verify the information,” Liz Truss said on her Twitter account.
She added that the use of such weapons “would constitute a brutal escalation in this conflict and we will hold (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his regime to account.”
For her part, Ukrainian MP Ivana Klimbusch indicated that Russia used an “unknown substance” in Mariupol, where many people suffer from respiratory failure, she said. “Probably chemical weapons,” she wrote on Twitter.
Previously, the Ukrainian Azov Regiment, experienced in Mariupol, claimed that a Russian drone had dropped a “toxic substance” on soldiers and civilians in Mariupol, in a message posted on Telegram on Monday, specifying that many people there had respiratory problems. and the nervous system.
According to Andrei Beltsky, founder of the Azov battalion, three people were poisoned by an unknown toxic substance, as he said in a video posted on Telegram: “Three people showed clear signs of poisoning with chemical warfare products, but without serious consequences.”
AFP was not immediately able to independently verify the allegations.
No confirmation
Petro Andryushenko, adviser to the Mayor of Mariupol, noted on Telegram that “information about the chemical attack is currently not confirmed,” noting that “details and clarifications” will be provided later and that “we are waiting for official information from the army.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said late Monday that Washington was aware of the reports of a chemical attack in the strategic city, but could not confirm them.
“This information, if correct, is very worrying and reflects our concerns about the possibility of Russia’s use of various riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine,” he declared.
On Monday, the representative of the separatist army in Donetsk, Eduard Basurin, was quoted by Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency as saying that the forces besieging Mariupol may resort to “chemical forces that will find a way to get the moles out of their power.” pit ”, referring to the entrenched Ukrainian soldiers.
Russia has denied committing war crimes during its attack on Ukraine, which began on February 24.
