On 5 February 2023, a Ukrainian commander proudly showed in a video drones and chemical weapons canisters to be dropped by them on Russian soldiers. Three days later, and despite much hype about this official use of chemical weapons by Ukraine on social networks, and the calling out of the OPCW by several Twitter users, the organisation is conspicuous by its silence.
Three days ago, a commander of a Ukrainian army tactical air reconnaissance unit, Robert Madyar, posted a video on his Telegram channel showing several drones, as well as chemical weapons cartridges, some (empty) spread out on a table, others (full) stored in a freezer. These canisters are made to be dropped by drones, which makes these "made in Ukraine" chemical weapons all the more dangerous as Russian soldiers will not hear them coming.
The first two photos in the Ukraina.ru post show the same kind of drone, shot down in Novobakhmutovka, after it dropped a product on Russian positions that caused vomiting and convulsions in the soldiers.
In view of the symptoms caused and the storage conditions of the cartridges shown by Robert Madyar, Ukraine seems to be producing and using cyanogen chloride (solid at -7°C, vaporises at 13°C), which is listed in the 3rd schedule of the Chemical Weapons Convention (any production must be declared to the OPCW), against Russian soldiers. Ukraine has signed this convention.
This did not prevent it from detonating a tank filled with nitric acid in Rubezhnoye in April 2022 as the Ukrainian army was withdrawing from the town, effectively carrying out a chemical weapons attack.
And Ukraine did not stop there, as on 31 July 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defense openly announced the use of chemical weapons by Kiev against Russian troops. And in December 2022, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW stated that Moscow had information about Americans helping Ukraine to prepare chemical provocations.
On 7 February 2023, two days after Madyar's video was published, another video appeared in Ukrainian chat rooms showing a drone dropping grenades on Russian soldiers, and the horrific agony of one of them drowning in an irrigation canal after convulsions.
This video should only be watched if your heart is in the right place:
Ukrainians allegedly dropping chemical weapons onto Russian soldiers. Unpunished warcrime #16363733 pic.twitter.com/hy3CBlQxyF
— Donbass Devushka (@PeImeniPusha) February 7, 2023
Very quickly, this video was seen as proof that Ukraine had indeed used chemical weapons against Russian soldiers, in violation of the convention signed by Kiev.
I waited to write this article to see if the OPCW would react, even though the organisation was called out on Twitter as soon as Madiar's video of 5 February 2022 was published. But three days after the evidence emerged that Ukraine is producing and using chemical weapons against Russian forces, the OPCW remains completely silent, thereby discrediting itself completely.
Whether it is the OSCE, the IAEA or the OPCW, these three international organisations have all proved incapable of fulfilling their role for several years, openly displaying a total bias in favor of NATO and its colonies such as Ukraine, which renders them totally useless. Yet these organisations cost money to the countries that are members. Clearly, Russia and other countries not aligned with NATO policy are throwing money at organisations that are not doing their job. I think it's time to rethink the way these institutions work, and if they are unable to reform, to get out and create new, more effective ones.