Russia may launch chemical attack in Ukraine, White House warns

The Joe Biden administration warned Wednesday that Russia could seek  a chemical or biological weapon attack in Ukraine as the White House disallowed Russian claims of illegal chemical weapons development in the country it has invaded.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Russia's claims about US biological weapon labs, and chemical weapon development in Ukraine, were preposterous.

This week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova — without evidence — accused Ukraine of running chemical and biological weapons labs with U.S. support.

Jen Psaki called the false claims an "obvious ploy" to try to justify further premeditated, unprovoked attacks.

"This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine," Psaki tweeted Wednesday.

"Now that Russia has made these false claims and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine or to create a false flag operation using them."

It comes after Western officials shared similar concerns about fresh attacks. They said they were "very concerned" about the risk the war could escalate, and particularly the possibility of Russia using non-conventional weapons.

"We've got good reason to be concerned," said one Western official.

This most likely refers to chemical weapons although the term also covers tactical (small-scale) nuclear weapons, biological weapons and dirty bombs.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Defence Ministry of the United Kingdom said in a tweet that

Putin's government  had used the thermobaric rockets in Ukraine. Those rockets, known as vacuum bombs, suck in oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion.

This makes them more devastating than conventional explosives of a similar size, and can have a terrible impact on people caught in their blast radius.

In a subsequent update, the ministry said it was likely "experienced mercenaries" from Russian private military companies associated with the Kremlin were deploying to fight in Ukraine.

The update added Russian mercenaries have been accused of committing human rights abuses in Africa and the Middle East, including in Syria, Libya and the Central African Republic.

The fears around chemical weapon use were borne from Russian claims potentially "setting the scene" for some kind of "false flag" claim, Western officials said.

Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy, in a tweet, referred to claims that "recently found documents" showed components of biological weapons were made in Ukrainian laboratories - with funding from the US Department of Defence.

The US dismissed the claims, saying it was the "kind of disinformation operation we've seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries".

Russian officials and their media have also claimed in recent days that Ukraine was planning to build a so-called dirty bomb - which disperses radioactive material.

Meanwhile, Russia's Foreign Minister DSergei Lavrov has claimed Ukraine had been seeking nuclear weapons.

Some believe Moscow is pushing these claims to come up with a justification for its own public about why it invaded Ukraine. But Western officials also fear they could be used as the basis for a "false flag" event.

For example, Russia could claim any dispersal of non-conventional weapons came from Ukrainian facilities or troops, or they were used first by Ukraine. That could justify, for Moscow, the subsequent use of non-conventional weapons by Russia.

The Western official said similar stories had come from Russia before their use in Syria. There were "other indications as well", they said - likely referring to some kind of intelligence. "It's a serious concern for us."

Russia's ally, the Assad government, used chemical weapons in Syria on multiple occasions against civilians.

Source: BBC, VOA