At the beginning of March 2024, the 105th session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), operating under the UN, took place. Against this backdrop, the Kremlin began to claim that the Ukrainian military is using various homemade ammunition and grenades “containing toxic chemical substances”. And, as a result, pro-Kremlin media wrote that the OPCW countries allegedly failed to refute “the facts provided by the Russian side”. It's a lie.

StopFake fact-checkers investigated this case and determined that one of the main topics of the OPCW meeting was indeed the use of chemical weapons in the war against Ukraine. However, Council members rejected all Russian accusations against Ukraine, calling them a “disinformation campaign” aimed at creating confusion in the Rada and discrediting the OPCW. Russia was also accused of spreading unfounded accusations about possible Ukrainian “plans” to use chemical weapons on its own territory.

Moreover, according to reports presented to the OPCW for discussion, the Russian occupiers are actively using so-called “riot control agents” against the Ukrainian defense forces - chemical compounds that temporarily deprive people of the ability to function, causing irritation of the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract and skin.