How do chemical and biological weapons work? The lethal danger for the population grows in the Russia-Ukraine conflict

The accusations, the denials and the counter-accusations intensified in this last week of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, now focusing on the threat of chemical and biological weapons. Official statements are mixed with what appear to be unverified innuendos on social media and state media.

Vladimir Putin’s government claims that Ukraine and its allies are developing chemical and/or biological weapons, and in turn planning a “dirty” weapons attack against them and their forces. The US State Department calls these Kremlin accusations “pure lies”.

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How do chemical and biological weapons work?

Chemical weapons are man-made toxic chemicals that are poisonous to humans. Different products work differently, but basically the effects depend on the dose a person receives.

Chemical weapons include mustard gas, phosgene, cyanide, which are known to have been developed throughout history, and in the different wars in the world.

These toxic substances can be used in the form of ammunition, artillery bombs, missiles or any other device that may contain this chemical weapon, reported EPE.

They tend to attack a person’s central nervous and respiratory systems, often leading to death. There are different types of agents:

– Nerve agents are considered the most lethal. They can be in liquid or gaseous form and can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin. They include sarin, soman, and VX.

– Blister agents are deployed in gas, aerosol, or liquid form. These cause severe burns and blisters on the skin. They include sulfur mustard, nitrogen mustard, lewisite, and phosgene oximine.

– Asphyxiating agents affect the respiratory system and include phosgene, chlorine and chloropicrin.

– Blood agents hinder the use and flow of oxygen through the body. A common blood agent is hydrogen chloride.

– Apart from those mentioned, there are so-called riot control agents, such as tear gas.

In contrast, biological weapons are bacteria, viruses, or toxins derived from living things that infect you and cause disease. So, it’s a totally different mechanism of action and the types of materials involved are completely different.

The intent is to release a living organism that can spread rapidly—invisibly at first—and cause disease and death in humans, animals, or plants.

These weapons include agents such as anthrax, botulinum toxin, and the plague, Ebola, and Lassa viruses. Apart from the basic infection caused by them, there is an added effect: a large enough outbreak will cause a community’s infrastructure to fail, especially its hospitals.

Could Russia or Ukraine use these weapons?

First of all, chemical and biological weapons are prohibited by international law and Russia signed those treaties and claims that it does not have such weapons. Its use would be to admit that it violated those provisions for many decades.

The Arms Control Association, an American policy advisory body, says that when the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) came into force in 1997, Albania, India, Iraq, Libya, Syria, the US, Russia and one country that remains anonymously, possessed these “dirty” weapons.

All countries claimed to have destroyed their declared arsenals except the US, which still “plans to do so.”

Where and when were these “dirty” weapons used?

Mankind used these weapons for centuries. Archaeological evidence suggests, for example, that the armies of ancient Persia used crystals of bitumen and sulfur to combat Roman forces.

In 1347, Mongol forces are said to have used plague-infected bodies in the Black Sea port of Caffa (present-day Feodosia, Ukraine) as weapons. Russian forces, meanwhile, used a similar tactic in 1710 against the town of Reval (present-day Tallinn, Estonia). Meanwhile, in 1763, British forces distributed smallpox-infected blankets among American Indian populations, creating an epidemic, as reported by DW.

France also used smoke against a Berber tribe in Algeria in 1845. And, during the American Civil War, poison canisters were dropped from balloons. (I)