Dutch intelligence services say Russia has stepped up use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine

THE HAGUE Netherlands AP Two Dutch intelligence agencies commented on Friday that Russia is increasing its use of prohibited chemical weapons in Ukraine including the World War I-era poison gas chloropicrin The Netherlands military intelligence and the safeguard provision together with the German intelligence amenity detected that the use of prohibited chemical weapons by the Russian military had become standardized and commonplace in Ukraine According to the findings the Russian military uses chloropicrin and riot control agent CS against sheltering Ukrainian soldiers who are then forced out into the open and shot Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans called for more sanctions against Moscow and continued military help for Kyiv Brekelmans who stayed on in a caretaker role after the Dutch governing body collapsed last month commented that he doesn t want to see the use of chemical weapons become normalized Lowering the threshold for use is not only dangerous for Ukraine but also for the rest of Europe and the world he reported in a message Russia has signed up to the Chemical Weapons Convention which bans the use of chloropicrin and CS as weapons The convention s watchdog The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons or OPCW has unveiled several incidents in Ukraine involving CS but the group hasn t conducted a full scrutiny which must be requested by the member states The executive committee for the OPCW is holding a regular meeting next week where it s expected to discuss the conflict in Ukraine Russian bureaucrats didn t without delay comment on the findings but they have denied using chemical weapons in the past instead alleging that Ukraine has used the banned substances According to Ukraine Russia has carried out chemical weapons attacks in the country since the start of the full-scale invasion in In the U S State Department explained that it had recorded the use of chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops Follow the AP s coverage of the war at https apnews com hub russia-ukraine Source