Please help by adding a lead section that introduces the topic and concisely summarizes the body. “They’ve used these weapons against their own citizens, they’ve at least encouraged the use in Syria and elsewhere, so it’s something we take very seriously.This article has no lead section. “This is something, as all of you know very well, is very much a part of Russia’s playbook,” he said. The director of the CIA, William Burns, told the US Senate intelligence committee that Russia could be laying the groundwork for a chemical or biological attack, which it would then blame on the US or Ukraine in a “false flag operation”. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, made a similar claim on Thursday, alleging that US-backed labs in Ukraine were working to “develop ethnically targeted biological weapons”. According to Russian-state media, Kirillov alleged the US planned to exploit Ukraine’s “unique geographical position” by sending migratory birds carrying deadly diseases into Russia. The head of the Russian military’s radiation, chemical and biological protection troops, Igor Kirillov, said on Thursday that US-backed labs in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa were working on pathogens custom-designed to target Russians and other Slavs. The grim toll for Ukrainian civilians comes amid growing fears that Russia could stage a chemical attack, as senior Russian officials recycled old conspiracy theories about alleged western-made biological weapons. More than 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine and a further 2 million are internally displaced, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said on Friday. Cluster munitions, which scatter small bombs over a large area, are banned by more than 100 countries, including the UK, but not Russia, Ukraine or the US. About 200,000 are believed to want to leave amid continuous Russian bombardment but have not been able to do so despite the daily declaration of humanitarian corridors.Ī UN spokesperson said there were credible reports of Russians using cluster munitions in populated areas. More than 400,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol, which is surrounded by Russian forces, and basic supplies are running out. It was hit, by a mortar.”Ī member of the Ukrainian armed forces takes a photograph of a damaged church after shelling in Mariupol on Thursday. That’s why I’m moving,” Aleksander Ivanov said. The Associated Press spoke to an exhausted-looking resident as he pulled a cart loaded with bags down an empty street flanked by damaged buildings in the port city. “They want to destroy the people of Mariupol. More than 1,300 people had died in the 10-day siege, said Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk. In the besieged port city of Mariupol conditions remain desperate, with people trapped inside indoor shelters with no heat, electricity and little or no food. The exact number of casualties is still to be established. He said 330 people had been in the hospital at the time, including wheelchair users and people unable to move. The regional governor, Oleh Synegubov, called it a “war crime against civilians genocide against the Ukrainian nation”. Russian forces were also reported to have hit a psychiatric hospital near Izyum, a town in the Kharkiv region. Russian forces have continued their advance into Ukraine, bombing cities in the west of the country, including Lviv, Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk.Īs heavy shelling continued across eastern Ukraine’s towns and cites, Ukrainian authorities reported Russia had killed more civilians than soldiers. “This makes me really worried, because we’ve been repeatedly convinced: if you want to know Russia’s plans, look at what Russia accuses others of.” “Allegedly, we are preparing a chemical attack,” Zelenskiy said in a video address on Thursday. “We believe Russia could use chemical or biological agents for assassinations as part of a false flag incident or to support tactical military operations.”īefore the UN session, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, expressed similar concerns. “The intent behind these lies seems clear and it is deeply troubling,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN. In response to Nebenzya’s claims, several member states on the security council warned that it could be a disinformation campaign ahead of a planned Russian attack inside Ukraine. The United Nations high representative for disarmament, Izumi Nakamitsu, said the UN was “not aware of any biological weapons programmes” in Ukraine, and pointed out there was an official channel for governments to raise any concerns about violations of the biological and toxin weapons convention banning their use. The remains of buildings and vehicles in Kharkiv as Russian attacks continue.
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