A Russian Emergency Ministry employee checks radiation levels and potential chemical air pollution in Kursk, Russia, 6 September 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/STRINGER

The Netherlands and Germany have accused Russia of ramping up its chemical weapons usage in Ukraine following a joint investigation of the two countries’ intelligence services, according to a joint press release published on Friday.

According to the investigation’s findings, it is now “standard practice” for Russia to use tear gas, as well as more serious substances like chloropicrin, high doses of which can be fatal, to force Ukrainian troops to leave cover “to be killed [with] conventional weapons”.

While tear gas is used for law enforcement purposes, its usage in warfare is banned by the 1992 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), to which Russia is a party.

"The main conclusion is that we can confirm Russia is intensifying its use of chemical weapons … it is part of a trend we have been observing for several years now, where Russia's use of chemical weapons in this war is becoming more normalized, standardized, and widespread,” Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans said in an interview with Reuters on Friday.

Russian chemical weapons had been tied to at least three Ukrainian deaths on the battlefield, with over 2,500 injured casualties also reporting chemical weapons-related symptoms, Brekelmans told Reuters.

While Moscow has not yet responded to the latest claims, it has previously denied Kyiv’s allegations regarding the illegal use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Most recently, in March, a Ukrainian delegation to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), accused Russia of “systematically violating” the CWC, having used chemical munitions over 6,900 times since 2022.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) had discovered a Ukrainian storage site containing chloropicrin-equipped weapons in the east of the country, and blamed the OPCW for turning a “blind eye” to Ukraine’s “flagrant breaches” of international law.

In May 2024, the OPCW stated that accusations from both Russia and Ukraine regarding the use of chemical weapons were “insufficiently substantiated”.