Kiev's script writers are trying to frame the Russian military, Defense Ministry claims.
Ukraine s Security Service SBU is plotting another provocation with the use of hazardous chemicals as part of Kiev smear campaign against Moscow, Russia's Ministry of Defense claimed on Wednesday amid the ongoing military offensive in the neighboring country.
The head of the National Defense Control Center of Russia, General Mikhail Mizintsev, said at a briefing that the incident is scheduled to take place in the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine. He claimed Ukrainian territorial defense units have already been provided with protective hazmat suits and are now participating in training within a chemical attack scenario.
According to the plan of the Kiev scriptwriters, Mizintsev claimed that units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will launch artillery strikes on the border regions of Russia from the settlements of the Sumy region. After a staged retaliatory fire attack carried out by Russian forces, Ukrainian special services plan to spray poisonous substances in the provocation area. The Chief of the National Defense Control Center said after the staged incident is recorded by experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, it will be used to accuse Russian armed forces of using chemical weapons against civilians.
Kiev hasn't made a statement on the allegations.
Mizintsev stressed that Russian forces do not use chemical weapons and that the country's stockpiles have been destroyed in accordance with international agreements.
Since the Russian attack in Ukraine in late February, Moscow and Kiev have repeatedly accused each other of war crimes and denied any culpability. Russia has warned of possible chemical attacks by the SBU. In April it accused the US of plotting to use weapons of mass destruction WMD in Ukraine in order to frame Moscow. Kiev and its Western supporters deny these accusations.
Over the last two months, Moscow has been publishing information about a network of US-funded biolabs scattered across Ukraine. It claims that secret installations have been involved in questionable research and in the development of biological weaponry. US officials confirmed the existence of biological research facilities in Ukraine, but said Washington only provided assistance for efforts that did not involve the development of bioweapons.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February after Ukraine failed to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French-brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was unprovoked and has denied that it plans to retake the two republics by force.