Recent reports suggest that Russia has made limited use of riot control agent as a weapon during its war against Ukraine. If true, what might explain this particular use – and what are the prospects of more widescale deployment of chemical weapons by Moscow?

Submission Statement

While the focus of the article is on one/a few cases of RCA use in the Ukraine War, the article also serves as an excellent overview of the reasons that chemical weapons have largely fallen out of favor since World War I. While there have been a few isolated reports of Russian/Ukrainian use of tear gas/RCA, larger-scale deployment of these weapons remains unlikely, given their serious drawbacks and the stigma surrounding the use of such weapons.

Lennie Phillips OBE Senior Research Fellow, Chemical Weapons Proliferation and Nuclear Policy

Professor David Crouch Senior Associate Fellow - Specialist in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) remediation processes

  • qwamqwamqwamOPMEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    Russians make broad use of magnesium/thermite charges. While these are frequently confused with WP and have similar incindiery effects, they aren’t the same and aren’t under the same restrictions. There have been a few claims about WP use, but none have been corroborated or backed with evidence. Of course, Russia has not allowed independent experts to actually gather evidence, so how convinced you are is up to you.