The British government has announced the introduction of new sanctions against Russia in response to the use of chemical weapons in the war against Ukraine. About this reported on the official website of the British government.
Sanctions were imposed on the Russian Research Institute of Applied Chemistry, as well as on two high-ranking officials: the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces (RKHBZ), Major General Oleksiy Rtyshchev and his deputy Andrii Marchenko. The restrictions include a ban on entry to the UK and freezing of their assets. The government indicated that activities related to the use of chemical weapons became the basis for the application of sanctions.
This is not the first such step by London. Back in October last year, Great Britain for the first time introduced sanctions against Russia for the use of chemical weapons on the Ukrainian front. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has repeatedly emphasized that Russia’s actions grossly violate the norms of warfare and ignore the provisions of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons, as well as the obligation to destroy them.
Previously published by France24 made public an investigation into Russia’s use of chlorpicrin, a toxic tear gas and suffocation agent. Its use is prohibited by international law. In a comment to the publication, Rob Chilcott, an expert in toxicology at the University of Hertfordshire, recalled that chlorpicrin was first used by the Russians during the First World War in 1916, and later it was used by French and German troops. The gas was used to force the soldiers to take off their gas masks, after which a more dangerous chemical weapon, mustard gas, was fired at them.
