LUGANSK, August 2. /TASS/. A Ukrainian chemical laboratory in the Kiev-held area of the Donetsk People’s Republic produces munitions with chloropicrin gas, which the Ukrainian military drops on Russian positions using drones, a captured Ukrainian soldier Albert Grigorovich, has told TASS.
"I know the commander. I can give his call sign, surname and first name. This unit instructs other units to make the same kind of bombs. Chemical, incendiary, high-explosive, and the like. Chemical munitions use chloropicrin. It literally burns the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, mouth and respiratory tract. If you drop 50 grams here (on the surface of the table - TASS), you can't see anything for a minute, you just vomit," Grigorovich said.
The substance is stored in special sealed barrels. It is dropped first on dugouts to force out the infantry, who are then attacked by kamikaze drones or conventional shrapnel munitions. Chemical ammunition bursts are hard to hear, and the gas itself is heavier than air, so it accumulates in lowland areas. A drone operator only needs to drop it near a dugout for the soldiers inside it to get poisoned and run out.
"When we were unloading a barrel, a little bit of the substance spilled on the ground. I vomited for two hours, my eyes were watering, it was hard to breathe," Grigorovich said.
The use of chloropicrin is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Convention defines it as a poisonous substance. Ukraine signed the Convention in 1993.