2024-01-25T19:02:00+02:00 Politics 2024-09-15T04:46:37+03:00

Ukrainian news

Occupiers begin using new type of banned grenades with poison gas - Center for Weapons Research

Occupiers begin using new type of banned grenades with poison gas - Center for Weapons Research

In December 2023, the russian occupation army first used RG-Vo grenades, which contain a chokehold substance chloroacetophenone, banned by the Geneva Protocol.

The representative of the Center for Research of Captured and Advanced Weapons and Military Equipment Andrii Rudyk announced this at a briefing in Military Media Center, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

According to Rudyk, in December 2023, a total of 81 cases of the use of russian grenades with poisonous substances were recorded, which at that time amounted to 17% of the total number since the start of the full-scale aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine.

"In December 2023, the Armed Forces of the russian federation for the first time used new RG-Vo gas grenades against Ukrainian defenders. The RG-Vo grenade uses a much more toxic chemical compound - chloroacetophenone or CN," said a representative of the Center.

The Center for Weapons Research suggests that if such ammunition hits a closed space, for example, a dugout, it takes 5 minutes to kill a person.

The enemy drops the indicated grenades from UAVs.

Chloroacetophenone is prohibited by the Geneva Protocol on the use of suffocating, poisonous or other similar gases and bacteriological agents in war (1925), and is also prohibited for use in combat by UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/2603 (1969).

"Let me remind you that the Russian Federation is still a participant in both documents. The fact that one of the initiators of the aforementioned 1969 resolution was the Soviet Union adds to the particular cynicism in the use of chloroacetophenone by the aggressor state," Rudyk adds.

He also stressed that the use by russian invaders against Ukrainian defenders of chloroacetophenone is significant in two contexts:

this is the first recorded case of the use of this poisonous substance in combat since 1969; mass production of RG-Vo gas grenades may indicate that the russian federation provided false information, stating in 2017 the complete destruction of chemical weapons stocks and their production facilities, which it committed to in accordance with the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

In particular, the Center for Research on Captured and Advanced Weapons and Military Equipment established that the marking "862" on the existing spent trophy sample means the Research Institute of Applied Chemistry in the city of Sergiev Posad, located in the moscow region of the russian federation.

Also, according to the marking, the existing grenade was made in 2023.

"This fact may indirectly indicate the preservation of appropriate capacities for the manufacture of more deadly poisonous substances, which violates the obligations made by Russia in accordance with the already mentioned 1993 convention," Rudyk added.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, russian invaders are looking for a new tactic to use Shaheds for future attacks against Ukraine.