By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia, the United States and Britain accused each other at the United Nations on Tuesday of possible chemical weapons attacks in Ukraine, but no evidence was presented to support their concerns.
Diplomats made the remarks to reporters after Russia raised the issue of an ammonia leak in the besieged city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine – laden with “Ukrainian ultra-nationalist groups” – during a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The United States and the United Kingdom rejected the charge.
Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said that Russian forces “did not plan or carry out attacks against Ukrainian facilities where toxic substances are stored or produced.”
“It is clear that the Ukrainian nationalist authorities, with the encouragement of Western countries, will not stop intimidating their own people and launching mock attacks to accuse Russia,” Polyansky said.
This is the third time that Russia has raised the issue of chemical and biological weapons since it launched what it calls a “special military operation” on February 24 to disarm Ukraine. The West and Ukraine say this is just an excuse to invade a democratic country.
“It is hard not to conclude – given his record in the UK, in Russia against Alexei Navalny, given what we saw in Syria – that this could be a precursor to the Russians themselves creating some kind of fake chemical weapons attack,” said British Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Barbara. Woodward told reporters.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, dismissed Russia’s accusations as “ridiculous”.
“Our concern is that this is a precursor to Russia’s plans to use chemical weapons,” he said.
A senior US defense source said Tuesday that the United States has not seen any concrete indications of an imminent Russian attack with chemical or biological weapons on Ukraine, but is monitoring the situation closely.
(Reporting by Michael Nichols)
