MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. Russia suspects that Kiev may not stop at exploding toxic chemicals in the Kharkov Region to put the blame on Russian artillery strikes, Russia’s chief negotiator at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, Konstantin Gavrilov, said on the Rossiya-24 round-the-clock television news channel in an interview.
"We suspect that the regime in Kiev, relying on support from its Western handlers, may explode a certain amount of chemicals in communities in the Kharkov Region to blame this on Russia’s artillery and other strikes," he said. "We have cautioned them against this type of scenario and warned that the tricks they used before will not work."
On Tuesday, the chief of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin ordered an investigation into the explosion of cisterns containing toxic chemicals the Ukrainian forces staged in the community of Rubezhnoye, the Lugansk People’s Republic. According to information available at this point retreating Ukrainian forces blew up railway cisterns with hazardous chemicals on the premises of an industrial plant in Rubezhnoye. The tanks contained nitric, sulfuric and hydrochloric acids and ammonia. If inhaled, the chemicals may cause serious poisoning and pulmonary edema. The Investigative Committee said that by blowing up the cisterns the Ukrainian military created a major threat to the civilian population and nearby communities.