Allegations of chemical weapons use: is Moscow ‘out of ideas’? • FRANCE 24 English

Allegations of chemical weapons use: is Moscow ‘out of ideas’? • FRANCE 24 English

turn to Melinda Harring she’s the senior fellow at the Atlantic council’s Eurasia Center Melinda thanks so much for joining us these are obviously big allegations uh by the United States not the first time as mentioned uh how would they go about proving that these chemical weapons have in fact been used hi Jean so we’ve seen the ukrainians make these accusations for months now Ukrainian soldiers have been complaining that they have Burns in their mouths and that they o have burns on their faces so I I think that this is the the the announcement by the state department has been um in in the making for months and months uh the the state department has been working with the Ukrainian side to get enough evidence in order to support this claim and if you notice that the claim the statement that that the the state department put out yesterday was very firm it said that this is not an isolated incident they’ve seen many many incidents like this so they have a lot of evidence to come out uh W with the statement that they put out yesterday and of course taking such a strong stance against the dangers of chloropicrin that’s the the chemical they allege has been used how dangerous is it on the front lines for those Ukrainian soldiers if it is being used so it’s dangerous it’s prohibited by uh International treaties but I think mo more significantly it says something about the Russian side and and where they are in terms of the war so in that statement you put up for from the state department the the Washington is saying Moscow is annoyed that it can’t get Kiev uh that it can’t force the soldiers out of these defensive fortifications so they’re now turning to ban chemical weapons so Moscow uh is using uh illegal you know it it doesn’t have any other it’s tried every sort of conventional way to make the ukrainians move uh and they’re they’re out of ideas so they’re turning to chemical weapons it shows sort of how Des Moscow is to try to change uh the the the military uh means on the ground but its desperation means it is finding a way to make these weapons if these allegations turn out to be true and in order to do so it would require uh companies assistance mining companies now the US says it will be sanctioning uh what it believes are to be those mining companies that they’re not necessarily in Russia that are helping the Russian forces with these weapons uh do we have any more information as of yet who they could be so Jan the package of sanctions that came out is pretty large it’s about 280 different organizations and a couple of things stick out I think this may be a pretty effective package the state department is looking for sanctions evaders so it it’s uh hitting uh different companies in Turkey uh in kyrgistan which has been a problem in Malaysia and it’s also aimed at the Chinese and if you dig through a lot of the this the the information around the sanctions package the state department has said that if we were able to really tighten sanctions on the PRC on China it would make it incredibly hard for Russia to continue to prosecute the war the the Russian side has been getting almost all their drones uh their pieces from China so this is an attempt to squeeze uh and to try to prevent that from happening well I want to follow on from that because it’s very important how these sanctions actually can uh Pro to be effective uh do you see them being effective if if they’re looking to actually punish Russia for this act is sanctioning the right way to go Jean sanctions are not perfect they don’t change Behavior but they make it more difficult for Russia to continue the war so yes and I think that you have to look at it in the context the United States Congress has finally put a package together the weapons package that the ukrainians have been begging for for months and months and months and you and I have talked many times about the rationing that the ukrainians face of the front lines so as the United States in the west surges up military might on the front lines it is definitely appropriate to Surge with sanctions as well and now obviously then the question goes to uh those same components that you’ve just mentioned that are helping in uh weapons and other military items in Russia they create them using components and often times that is from the West itself how does the United States how does Europe then Target maybe its own companies which through third countries those weapons and possibly now in this case Mining and chemicals are reaching Russia so this is not an easy thing to keep your your finger on uh the sanctions lists have to be constantly updated uh and finding ways to uh eliminate sanctions evaders is really important but also just being on on top top of uh the behavior of of companies so the the target is always changing uh in the state department the treasury Department both in the United States and in Western countries have to keep those sanctions lists active and keep updating them so just a final follow-up question how do you see this uh playing out now in terms of any kind of immediate response at least uh directly from the United States to Russia or the West at large so Russia has denied the claims but look this is typical Russian Behavior we’ve seen them use chemical weapons in in Britain we’ve seen them use chemical weapons on their own people with Alexa Nali so in some senses this is terrible ugly Behavior but it’s predictable I think that the West is going to continue to ratchet up the pressure with sanctions and with weapons and and I think that Russia has finally seen that the West is serious when it says we will be with Ukraine for as long as it takes an interesting uh thought there Melinda thanks so much uh for for just uh Opening Our Eyes into this situation that’s Melinda har Harring she’s the senior fellow at the Atlantic council’s Eurasia Center and talking all about those accusations of Russia using chemical weapons uh in Ukraine well turning now to uh

The Kremlin has rejected allegations by the US that Russian forces had used a “chemical weapon” in Ukraine. According to the US State Department, Moscow has been turning to banned chemical weapons because its efforts to dislodge Ukrainian soldiers in trenches are being frustrated. Melinda Haring, Senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, speaks to Jean-Emile Jammine.
#Russia #Ukraine #NATO

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