Russian forces employing new poison gas grenades, says armament research centre

Russia is escalating its use of weapons containing chemical substances, and deploying a new type of gas grenade.

Source: Captain Andrii Rudyk, a representative of the Centre for the Research of Trophy and Prospective Weapons and Military Equipment of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, as reported by Armiia Inform

Details: Rudyk said that in December 2023, Russians were observed using grenades containing poisonous substances a total of 81 times.

Combat use of the new model of gas grenade, named the RG-VO, was first observed that month. The grenade contains chloroacetophenone, an asphyxiant gas that is prohibited by the Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. 

The research centre says that if one such grenade were to be thrown into a room or bunker, those inside would perish within five minutes. The captured grenade sent to the centre for analysis was manufactured in 2023 by a plant that has operated since Soviet times.

The centre says that Russia is currently "testing the waters" with the use of these grenades, and that its future expansion of the use of chemical weapons will be determined by the reaction of the international community.

Quote from Rudyk: "Thus, in 2017, Russia lied about fulfilling its commitments under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, which required the destruction of both the weapons themselves and the production facilities where they were manufactured."

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