MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. The People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic has evidence that a batch of botulinum toxin (a highly toxic substance causing paralysis) and its antidote has been delivered to Ukraine from the United States, the deputy chief of the People’s Militia Directorate, Eduard Basurin, said on the Rossiya-1 television channel in an interview on Wednesday.
"It is common knowledge that the United States has brought different types of weapons to Ukraine," he said adding that a batch of an antidote for botulinum toxin was delivered in October. Basurin recalled that botulinum toxin was a chemical warfare agent.
"The chemical substance proper was supplied in November," he added. "A 300-kilogram container of this warfare agent, used as a spray, was brought to Mariupol. The poisonous substance was then moved to the Kharkov region."
Basurin confirmed the presence of US military instructors on the engagement line.
"Their task is to make fire emplacements. They obey only certain people. They do not have a common command on the Ukrainian side," he said.
On December 21, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that the presence of more than 120 members of private US military companies had been identified in the villages of Avdeyevka and Priazovskoye. He stressed that containers with unknown chemical compounds had been delivered to the village of Avdeyevka and Krasny Liman for staging provocations. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolayenko has denied the presence of private military instructors from the US or toxic chemicals in the Kiev-controlled part of Donbass.