Growing threat of Russian chemical weapons use in Ukraine is a wake-up call for world leaders

On 18 November 2024, a day before Ukraine marked 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed Russia’s use of chemical weapons in a new report.

In less than a year – from February 2023 to October 2024 – more than 4,600 instances of the Russian Federation’s use of munitions containing dangerous chemical substances, including chlorobenzalmalonitrile (CS), chloroacetophenone (CN), chloropicrin, and mercaptans (mild irritants), had been documented. 

Read: Ukraine foreign ministry’s statement on the OPCW report

It seems as if, anytime anywhere in the world when chemical weapons of mass destruction are deployed or there’s a murder or attempted murder using chemical weapons, you can be sure Russia is behind it.

We have all seen the atrocities committed in Syria, where civilians were bombed with sarin, which was confirmed by the OPCW and the UN’s Joint Investigative Mechanism, despite Russian and Syrian efforts to bury the truth.

For those who have forgotten: during numerous chemical attacks on civilians in Syria, Russia kept blaming the “opposition” for dropping chemical weapons on themselves. Remind you of anything? If not, you haven’t been paying attention to all the wars Russia has started over the years. 

On the website of the Arms Control Association – a US nonpartisan membership organisation founded in 1971 and dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies – you can read many reports on Syria, Russia and the global chemical weapons crisis. This is a quote from one of them: 

“Damascus and Moscow quickly flooded the media with disinformation and outright fabrications, claiming the opposition itself had launched the attack to falsely accuse the Assad regime… Despite Russian and Syrian efforts to bury the truth of what happened in Khan Shaykhun, the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) determined that the Syrian military had used sarin in the attack. It was evident at the United Nations and the OPCW, however, that Russia would seek to block any international action against its Syrian ally, no matter how damning the evidence. Indeed, it was in direct reaction to the JIM’s competence that Russia vetoed three renewal resolutions at the UN, and the JIM ended in November 2017.” 

Russia is always “saving” everyone around the world. Yet those they are “saving” somehow always end up dead while Russia blocks any and all investigations and spreads misinformation. 

Read more: War in Ukraine

The international community must recognise the peril in allowing such actions to go unchecked. The use of chemical weapons not only violates international law but also sets a dangerous precedent for the future.

Chemical weapons are not just another tool of war; they are among the most insidious forms of violence. Once used, these weapons evolve. The more they are deployed, the more they transform into even more potent and deadly agents, becoming harder to contain and disarm. 

Just as with drones that Russia widely uses to terrorise and kill civilians and destroy civil infrastructure, initially slow and easily targeted, they have become increasingly sophisticated, agile and lethal. 

In the early stages of Russian-Iranian drone warfare, such technology seemed simple and crude, easily neutralised by air defence systems and radar detection. 

Read more: Ukraine Crisis Archives

Today, drones are far more advanced, flying close to the ground, undetected, and carrying increasingly destructive payloads like thermobaric warheads that bring devastation on an unprecedented scale. The same escalation can be expected with chemical weapons. Once chemical agents become more widespread and refined, they will be harder to trace, harder to neutralise, and ultimately more devastating. 

This is not a hypothetical scenario. The global proliferation of dangerous technologies is already happening. There’s no lack of evidence; there is a growing body of evidence that shows chemical weapons are being used not only by state actors but could eventually find their way into the hands of non-state groups, including terrorist organisations. 

The idea that chemical weapons are somehow contained to a few state actors is dangerously naive. History has shown time and again that once these weapons are out there, they cannot be easily reined in.

The world cannot afford to ignore the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine or elsewhere. It sets a dangerous precedent and opens the door for even worse atrocities in the future. 

The international community must respond swiftly and decisively – not just through condemnations, but through actions that isolate and hold accountable those who continue to use these weapons of mass destruction. The time to act is now, before these weapons evolve beyond our ability to control them.

This is an extremely important issue that has grave implications for global security. DM