RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
US preparing false flag chemical attacks in Ukraine – Moscow
The US is preparing to stage false flag chemical attacks in Ukraine to pin the blame on Moscow for the use of banned toxic agents, the chief of Russia’s Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense troops, Igor Kirillov, has said.
The Americans believe that the international community wouldn’t be able to organize an effective investigation of such “provocations” due to the fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, which would allow Washington to escape responsibility, Kirillov said during a briefing on Tuesday.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has obtained information that a train with a cargo of chemical substances in one of its cars had apparently arrived in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Kramatorsk in Donbass on February 10, the commander said.
The 16 metal boxes with special markings that suggest they contained BZ (3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate) incapacitating agent as well as CS (chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile) and CR (dibenzoxazepine) harassing 'riot-control' agents, were accompanied by the “citizens of foreign nations,” he also alleged.
According to Kirillov, the chemicals were unloaded at a local metallurgical plant under the supervision of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and put on US-supplied armored vehicles that later moved out towards a contact as part of a convoy.
Russia also established that eleven cars with specially marked shrapnel ammunition were unloaded in Kramatorsk on February 19, the commander said. The shells of this type had been previously upgraded in the US to be able to deliver harassing chemical substances, he added.
NATO has also planned a large delivery of means of chemical protection to Ukraine, including hundreds of antidotes for various toxic substances, Kirillov is also alleging.
“The facts of simultaneous delivery of toxic chemicals and means of protection against them indicate an attempt to carry out large-scale provocations using the BZ military-grade psychoactive chemical agent during the conflict,” he said.
Despite announcing the depletion of all of its stocks of BZ back in 1990, the US has preserved samples of the toxic agent, which causes acute psychosis, disorientation, hallucinations and memory impairment. Washington maintains the capability to produce the substance in significant quantities, the commander claimed.
If a provocation using chemical weapons is carried out in Donbass, “the true culprits will be identified and held accountable," Kirillov warned.
Russian forces in the area have all the means to promptly detect the use of toxic agents and to contain such incidents, he assured Tuesday's briefing, adding that they can identify not just the substance being deployed but also the country where it was produced.
Chemical warfare is forbidden under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1997, to which the US, Ukraine and Russia are all signatories. The document bans their militaries from even using riot-control agents or tear gas, despite them being allowed in law enforcement.
** Situation in Bakhmut much worse than Kiev admits, CNN reports
The situation near Artyomovsk, known in Ukraine as Bakhmut, is much worse for Ukrainian forces than Kiev officially admits, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing Ukrainian troops fighting for the town.
"The situation in Bakhmut is very difficult now. It is much worse than officially reported," a soldier who wished to remain anonymous told CNN on Tuesday. "We should add another 100% difficulty to the official reports. In all directions. Especially in the northern direction."
Another soldier said in a video that "the situation around the defense of Bakhmut is quite difficult". A third soldier described the fighting as "hellish."
Artyomovsk is located in the Kiev-controlled part of the DPR and is an important transportation hub for supplying Ukrainian troops in Donbass. Fierce fighting has been raging for the town. Denis Pushilin, the interim head of the Donetsk People’s Republic said on February 16 that Russian forces had seized control of all key heights near Artyomovsk.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russians intensify assault on Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces try to dig in
Russian forces carried out continuous attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in their quest for a breakthrough in the year-long war, and one U.S. official predicted few short-term territorial gains for Russia.
Ukrainian aircraft launched three strikes on areas of concentration of Russian forces, according to a statement by the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Tuesday night.
Bakhmut had a pre-war population of around 70,000 but has been ruined during months of fighting as a focal point of Russian assaults and determined Ukrainian defence.
"The most difficult part, as before, is Bakhmut and the fighting that is essential for the city's defence," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
"Russia in general takes no account of people and sends them in constant waves against our positions, the intensity of the fighting is only increasing," Zelenskiy said.
A Russian takeover of Bakhmut would open the way to seizing the last remaining urban centres in the industrial Donetsk province.
While most of the Russian attacks were focused on Bakhmut and other towns and villages in Donetsk, the military statement said Russian forces shelled more than 20 settlements in northern regions near the Russian border: Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv.
Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.
Russia's state-run RIA news agency released a video clip it said showed Russian Su-25 fighter jets roaring over Bakhmut.
"We are glad they are ours," says a man in the clip identified as a fighter of the mercenary Wagner Group, adding the jets helped them "psychologically".
** 'GRINDING SLOG'
In Washington, senior U.S. defence official Colin Kahl told a congressional hearing on Tuesday that the front lines of the war were a "grinding slog" and there was nothing to suggest "the Russians can sweep across Ukraine and make significant territorial gains anytime in the next year or so."
Kahl spoke during a hearing focused on oversight of the nearly $32 billion in military aid President Joe Biden's administration has provided to Ukraine since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24 last year, including drones, long-range artillery systems, and air defence capabilities.
Ukraine has sought weaponry to protect itself from waves of Russian missile and drone attacks that in the depths of winter damaged the power grid and other infrastructure, killed hundreds of civilians and left millions with no electricity or water.
As part of an investigation into whether the attacks contravened the Geneva conventions on military conflict, the International Criminal Court's top prosecutorKarim Khan was in Ukraine on Tuesday.
"Generally we see clearly a pattern, I think, in terms of the number, scale and breadth of attacks against the power grids of Ukraine and we need to look at why that's taking place; are they legitimate targets or not?" Khan said to reporters in the town of Vyshhorod just north of the capital Kyiv.
** FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET
Elsewhere, foreign ministers from around the world will meet in New Delhi on Wednesday and Thursday in the shadow of Russia's war in Ukraine and spiralling U.S.-China tensions.
The meeting will be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Britain's James Cleverly, while China is expected to send its foreign minister, Qin Gang.
India does not want Ukraine to dominate the event, but it will top the agenda, said an Indian foreign ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday repeated Moscow's stance that it is open to peace negotiations but Ukraine and its Western allies must accept Russia's annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions after referendums last September that most governments said were illegal.
Despite several battlefield setbacks in what Moscow describes as a "special military operation" to protect Russian security interests, Russian forces still control about a fifth of territory in its European-leaning neighbour Ukraine.
Zelenskiy's government has so far ruled out talks with Moscow and has demanded that Russian troops withdraw to Ukraine's borders in 1991 - the year the Soviet Union collapsed.
RT/TASS/Reuters
