MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. The chemical warfare agent found during the prevention of a terrorist attack in the Zaporozhye Region has turned out to be close to BZ (NATO code), the chief of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection forces Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said on the TV channel Rossiya-24. Some components used in its manufacture were seized, too, he added.
The TV report showed a Russian laboratory accredited by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
"What has now been discovered is a substance close to BZ, a poisonous blacklisted substance. Some precursors that are used in its manufacture were seized, too. This poison was created at Edgewood Arsenal in the United States," Kirillov said.
On February 27, the Russian Security Service FSB's public relations center told TASS that a terrorist attack plotted by Ukrainian security services involving the use of an analogue of the BZ chemical warfare agent in Zaporozhye Region had been prevented. Criminal proceedings were launched and three Ukrainian citizens detained. The seized chemicals are used to create weapons of mass destruction. All were developed in the United States.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the substance BZ is a standard chemical warfare agent of the US Army, widely used during the Vietnam War. The United States and its allies have repeatedly used munitions equipped with chemical agents in military conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
BZ is a psychochemical warfare agent, capable of disorganizing enemy troops. On February 19, Kirillov said that a toxic chemical similar to BZ, included in Schedule 2 of the Chemical Weapons Convention, had been used against Russian servicemen on August 19, 2022. A similar substance, he said, was found on January 28, 2024 during detective and search operation in a cache in Melitopol.