June 26, 2024: Russia has used lethal poison gas against Ukraine for the entire 2022 war, sometimes including the Novichok nerve gas. It started out with one use early on, during the siege of Mariupol, became sporadic for most of the war and suddenly became constant (100+ per month) starting in April 2024. The use of nerve agents increased too, but how much is not clear. The only consistent items in every use are that all were delivered by UAVs and drones on Ukrainian forward areas, and all involved the forbidden agent Chloropicrin, which is principally an irritant that is lethal in higher doses. Chloropicrin is used by itself or in conjunction with more lethal agents. On May 1 the US Department of State “made a determination under the CBW Act that Russia has used the chemical weapon chloropicrin against Ukrainian forces in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).”

Chloropicrin is most effectively used as an enhancer for more dangerous gases in that it makes victims gasp for breath, and so leads them to inhale more of any really lethal war gases delivered soon afterwards. The element which makes Chloropicrin so effective is that it has a two-hour delayed effect so victims are rarely aware that they have been exposed to it. That makes later delivery of more lethal agents much more effective because victims are then unable to don gas masks. And the Chloropicrin is disabling by itself as well as lethal in strong concentrations. It might be cheaper than more lethal agents.

Ukraine has not made any official comment on Russian gas attacks. Ukrainian social media has, and indicates that Ukrainians are enraged by this, but have not said anything about the casualties inflicted or how effective Russian use of poison gas has been. The latter absence of comment is probably due to Ukrainian government censorship.

Drones and UAVs are ideal weapons for delivering poison gas because they are so accurate in doing so. Poison gas deliveries used to require masses of artillery, or huge spray tanks on jet fighter-bombers, laying down hundreds or thousands of tons of the agents to affect wide areas with the gas concentrations required. The noise of all that usually gave troops time to don gas masks in time to avoid serious injury.

Drones and UAVs can only deliver small amounts of poison gas, but that’s all they need because they are so much more accurate, and quiet, that they can do so precisely at night on a line of trenches, or individual bunkers, without alerting troops below that they are under gas attack. Troops can’t sleep while wearing gas masks.

This also makes night drone/UAV gas attacks extremely effective terror weapons because their potential will keep more enemy troops in forward areas awake at night listening for the noise of UAVs overhead. Even Ukrainian attacks with UAVs carrying ordinary payloads against Russian forward positions have become so constant and lethal that Russian troops there have begun committing suicide when they hear UAVs overhead.

Ukraine has not retaliated with its own poison gas, though it could, in apparent fear that Russia will escalate with nuclear weapons. This is justified given that the US has done nothing effective against Russia despite the May State Department admission that Russia is using lethal poison gas against Ukraine. America’s complete failure to enforce its written guarantee of protection of the Ukraine from Russian attack in the 1994 Budapest Security Guarantees on two occasions, when the Russians invaded Ukraine in 2014 and again in 2022, establishes that America’s word in writing means nothing where Ukraine is concerned.

Ukraine is now aware that it can only rely on its own strength concerning Russian use of chemical weapons.

--Tom Holsinger