THE HAGUE, November 25. /TASS/. A recent note from the technical secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons about an alleged use of toxic chemical is Ukraine looks absurd, Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Kirill Lysogorsky said.
"The US and its allies, contrary to facts, are persistently trying to accuse Russia of violating the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention," he said at the 29th Conference of the States Parties of the OPCW. "Serving an example of this is the latest provocative information that was submitted by Ukraine and circulated through a note from the OPCW technical secretariat."
According to Lysogorsky, who leads the Russian delegation at the OPCW conference, Moscow is checking the information and will report on the outcome through its permanent mission to the OPCW.
"I can tell you my personal observations on this issue," the official said. "I have carefully studied said note. It looks more like a theater of the absurd."
"Based on the report, we see that the capability was allegedly used on an empty trench in an area where there are no active combat operations, as the territory of presence of the armed forces of Ukraine and Russia is separated by a river, and the distance is more than 8 kilometers," Lysogorsky said.
"Russia has much more effective striking capabilities, which are regularly used in order to carry out missions in the special operation zone," he said. "One of them was demonstrated last week."
"So we don’t see a point in violating the principles and obligations that we have embraced as part of the convention," the official went on to say.