'Unbearable' — EU's Kallas raises alarm over Russia's escalating chemical warfare in Ukraine

Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said on July 15 that Russia's intensifying use of chemical weapons during its war against Ukraine shows Moscow "wants to cause as much pain and suffering as possible."

Citing recent reports by the Dutch and German intelligence agencies, Kallas said that Russian forces have carried out over 9,000 chemical attacks against Ukrainian troops since the outbreak of the full-scale war in 2022.

"Again, it shows that Russia wants to cause as much pain and suffering as possible so that Ukraine would surrender," Kallas said at a press conference during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. "It is really unbearable," she added."

The Netherlands Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) reported on July 4 that Russian troops are increasingly deploying chemical weapons — including chloropicrin, a highly toxic World War I-era agent — in the field.

The agent is reportedly dropped by drones to flush Ukrainian soldiers from trenches, leaving them exposed to further drone or artillery strikes. At least three Ukrainian soldiers have reportedly died from direct exposure.

Western reports support Kyiv's own warnings about Russia's intensifying use of chemical agents on the battlefield, a method of warfare banned under the Geneva Conventions.

The EU, the U.S., and the U.K. have slapped sanctions on Russia because of these banned tactics.

Last December, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) assassinated Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian Armed Forces' radiation, chemical, and biological defense troops, with a bomb in Moscow, an SBU source told the Kyiv Independent.

Kirillov was on the U.K. sanctions list over the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.