And the account of the Russian mission to the United Nations on Twitter quoted Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, as saying: “We see a scenario in Ukraine that resembles the orchestrated chemical attacks that took place in Syria, organized by terrorist groups with the help of Western intelligence and bad NGOs. Reputation is like the (White Helmets).”
The post added that “these attempts were used as a pretext to accuse the Syrian government of using chemical weapons.”
At a closed meeting of the UN Security Council, Russia raised the issue of an ammonia leak in the besieged city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, blaming “Ukrainian nationalist groups”.
Polyansky said that Russian forces “never planned or directed strikes on any Ukrainian facilities that store or produce toxic materials.”
“It is clear that the Ukrainian national authorities, with the encouragement of Western countries, will stop at nothing to intimidate their own people and launch attacks to accuse Russia,” he added.
This is the third time that Russia has raised the issue of biological or chemical weapons, since it began its attack on Ukraine on February 24.
The West and Ukraine reject that accusation, with Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward telling reporters: “It’s hard not to conclude, given their record in the UK and in Russia against Alexei Navalny, and given what we saw in Syria, that this might be a prelude to fabricating the Russians themselves. A chemical attack.”
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, dismissed Russia’s accusations as “absurd”, adding: “Our concern is that this is a prelude to Russia’s plans to use chemical weapons.”
According to a senior US defense official, the United States has not yet seen any concrete indications of an imminent Russian attack with chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, but it is monitoring intelligence closely.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden said, without providing evidence, that Russia’s false accusations that Kyiv had biological and chemical weapons indicated that Russian President Vladimir Putin was considering using them in Ukraine.
#Syrian #scenario #repeated #Moscow #responds #chemical #charges #Ukraine