Fake For three years, Mariupol has been preparing for provocations with chemical weapons by the Ukrainian army
The Russian media spread this information. Reports claim that in Mariupol in 2019, they were allegedly preparing for a Ukrainian provocation using chemical weapons. Such texts refer to the correspondent of the Russian newspaper Izvestia, who found training plans for protection against chemical weapons on the abandoned base of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Mariupol. According to VoxCheck, the program of training seems to have survived from 2019; the Izvestia story shows several of its pages and quotes the representative of the so-called "People's Militia of the DNR" Eduard Basurin, that in 2019 the United States actively imported various weapons to Ukraine, among others - chemical preparation. However, the fact that the ICRC staff was trained on behaving in conditions of chemical danger does not prove that Mariupol was preparing for a chemical attack. "The ICRC is present in many countries affected by armed conflict, so it is justified that the organization prepares its employees to work in emergencies, including chemical attacks. The ICRC conducts similar information activities in all countries with offices and where armed conflicts continue. The ICRC website in Ukraine states that the organization, among other things, does have offices in Sievierodonetsk and Mariupol (as well as in Kyiv, Slovyansk, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Odesa), ” the fact-checkers write.