MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. Ukraine will play the chemical weapons provocation card one way or another, Alexander Shulgin, Russia's Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said.

"When Ukraine joined the chemical convention, it did not declare the presence of chemical weapons on its territory. But I think that one way or another the Ukrainians will play this card [with chemical provocations]," he said at a briefing on the occasion of the OPCW’s International Day.

Shulgin added that at the same time, Kiev has the potential and powerful industry to develop chemical weapons.

"If they (the Kiev authorities) were thinking to recreate nuclear weapons, then why not recreate chemical weapons. They still have the potential from previous years, a powerful chemical industry," he said.