Russian forces pushing their grinding offensive in eastern Ukraine "appear to be" resorting to World War I-era chemical weapons in their bid to dislodge Kyiv's defending units, according to the latest battlefield update from the Institute for the Study of War.
Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, the spokesperson for the Tavria Ukrainian military group operating on the southeastern front line, said on Tuesday that Russian forces had been using "K-51 grenades with chloropicrin" in their attacks on Kyiv's positions.
The substance is a compound commonly used in the agricultural industry for its antimicrobial, fungicide, herbicide and insecticide properties. But it has also been used as a chemical weapon for its irritant effects, particularly in World War I.
"The enemy continues to violate the customs of warfare and use ammunition with poisonous substances of chemical origin," Shtupun said, as quoted by Ukraine's ArmyInform website.
"Five such resets were recorded yesterday. These are probably K-51 grenades with chloropicrin. But each such case is investigated separately, appropriate analyzes are made, and then it is submitted to international institutions."
Shtupun said the gas is particularly dangerous when it enters dugouts, though he added that the use of ordinary gas masks is sufficient protection for the soldiers being targeted.
Newsweek could not independently verify the report and has contacted the Russian defense ministry to request comment.
"Chloropicrin is primarily used as a soil fumigant that can be fatal when inhaled, and it is sometimes classified as a riot control agent due to its harmful and irritant effects," the ISW noted in its Tuesday update. Russia is a signatory to the Chemical Warfare Convention, which prohibits the use of riot control agents in warfare.
There have been multiple reports of Russian troops using K-51 chloropicrin grenades against Ukrainian positions all along the front line since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Moscow has also accused Ukrainian forces of using chemical weapons in fighting around the Donetsk settlements of Soledar and Bakhmut, a claim denied by Kyiv.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists chloropicrin as a "lung damaging agent." The compound, the agency says, "has an intensely irritating odor," and exposure to it can be "severely irritating to the lungs, eyes, and skin." Battlefield reports from World War I said soldiers exposed to chloropicrin often had to remove their gas masks to vomit.
The compound, "when fired in a high concentration in a specific area, seeped into the masks and created intolerable eye irritation, coughing, vomiting, and inflammation of the respiratory tract," according to the U.S. Army's Leavenworth Papers, which were published in 1984 detailing World War I chemical weapons usage. "Enemy soldiers forced to remove their fouled masks were then subjected to a shelling with lethal phosgene."
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