Status: 04/12/2022 04:57 am
In the escalating battle for the port city of Mariupol, there are reports of a poison gas attack. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy had previously warned against the Russian use of chemical weapons. The West reacts with concern.
Shortly after a Russian threat to use chemical weapons in Mariupol, the Azov regiment of Ukraine reported an alleged poison gas attack. An unknown substance had been dropped from a drone over the long-contested city, Azov announced in the evening on his Telegram channel. However, the public Ukrainian TV broadcaster Suspilne reported that there was no confirmation from official bodies.
True, military sources considered the probability of a chemical weapons attack by the Russian side to be “very high”. The broadcaster is trying to get confirmation from the military or the secret service. According to the Azov information, the people hit suffered from breathing difficulties and movement disorders.
Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol mayor, also stressed on Telegram that “the information about the chemical weapons attack is currently unconfirmed.” “Details and clarifications” were made at a later date. He is waiting for “official information from the military”.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Pro-Russian separatists raise chemical weapons
According to Western military experts, the situation in Mariupol is getting worse. Russian forces pushed back the Ukrainian defenders. The Ukrainians have entrenched themselves in the Azovstal steelworks, among other places. Military spokesman for the pro-Russian Donetsk separatists, Eduard Bassurin, said capturing the underground fortifications at the factory site would be too costly. Therefore one should rely on chemically armed troops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referred to this threat in his nightly video address. “We take this very seriously.” A possible chemical weapons attack should prompt foreign states to react even more harshly to Russian aggression, Zelensky said. Russia did not itself use chemical weapons in the Syrian war, but covered up and denied the proven dropping of bombs with poison gas by the Syrian government.
West warns Moscow against use of chemical weapons
Western countries have warned Moscow of serious consequences if it uses chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in the war that began nearly seven weeks ago. After the reports from Mariupol, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss wrote on Twitter that they were working with partners to verify details. Any use of such weapons would be an escalation for which Russian President Vladimir Putin and his leadership would be held accountable.
A spokesman for the US Department of Defense said there was no confirmation of the use of chemical weapons. If the reports are correct, that would be very worrying. It is consistent with fears that Russia may use chemical means, such as tear gas mixed with other chemicals, to suppress large crowds in Ukraine, said spokesman John Kirby.
Mayor: Already more than 10,000 dead civilians in Mariupol
According to the mayor, more than 10,000 civilians have already been killed in the city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian troops for more than a month. Vadym Boichenko gave the number in a phone call to the AP news agency on Monday. The city’s streets are still covered with bodies, he said. So it could also be more than 20,000 dead. Only last Wednesday Boitschenko put the number of dead in his city at more than 5,000. His statements could not be verified independently.
Shaded in white: advance of the Russian army. Shaded in green: Russian-backed separatist areas. Crimea: annexed by Russia.
Image: ISW/04/10/2022
Mariupol has seen some of Russia’s most brutal attacks in Ukraine. Boichenko said the Russian soldiers had brought mobile crematoria with them, which they would use to dispose of corpses. The mayor accused the Russians of blocking humanitarian corridors into the port city to cover up the massacre of civilians in Mariupol.
Meanwhile, the head of the separatist government in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, claimed that the Ukrainian government had lost control of the port of Mariupol. The port is now under the control of the separatists, Puschilin told Russian state television, Russian news agencies reported. The statement could not be confirmed at first. Boichenko said fighting continued in the port.
Zelenskyj: We don’t have the weapons to liberate Mariupol
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine lacks the heavy weapons to liberate Mariupol. “If we had planes and enough heavy armored vehicles and artillery, we could do it,” he said in his video address.
He is sure that Ukraine will eventually get the weapons it needs. “But not only time is lost, but also the lives of Ukrainians”. Those who did not deliver the weapons now were responsible for this.
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zalushny confirmed on Monday that the connection to the Mariupol defenders had not been severed. He was responding to allegations by the marines deployed there that there had been no contact with the Ukrainian military leadership for two weeks.
People in Kharkiv warned of cluster mines
Meanwhile, the attacks continue elsewhere in the country: According to the local governor, at least eight civilians were killed by Russian artillery fire in the Kharkov region. The authorities also warned the population of landmines that had been dropped on the north-eastern city. On Monday, security forces cordoned off an area east of Kharkiv to clear up a number of small explosive devices scattered on residential streets.
The head of Ukraine’s demining unit, Lt. Col. Nikolai Ovcharuk, said the mines were plastic PTM-1M time-detonated mines and were widely used by Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Cluster mines such as the PTM-1M mines are banned under the Ottawa Convention on anti-personnel mines because of the danger they pose to civilians. Reuters could not independently confirm which mines were in Kharkiv.