A research institute outside Moscow is manufacturing chemical weapons that Russia’s military has deployed in Ukraine — in violation of international law — a report by Skhemy (lit. “Schemes”), the investigative unit of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian service, has found.
The Applied Chemistry Research Institute in Sergiyev Posad, a town just over 40 miles northeast of Moscow, sources the components for its grenades from companies across Russia that have not yet been hit by Western sanctions. The facility also receives materials from Chinese firms which it uses to produce banned phosphorus munitions, the investigation revealed.
Despite its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, Russia has not abandoned such weapons but has instead modernized and expanded their production. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has documented more than 10,000 chemical attacks on its country’s troops — mostly with RG-Vo (РГ-Во) grenades, short for “hand grenade with toxic substance,” which were introduced to Russia’s arsenal in December 2023, according to Skhemy. The grenades are widely used by Russian units, including the 114th and 136th Motorized Rifle Brigades and detachments of the National Guard (Rosgvardiya).
The weapons contain toxic CS and CN gases. While their production is not formally banned, using them in combat violates international law. Russian forces employ the RG-Vo to flush Ukrainian soldiers from dugouts and other shelters before attacking. The grenades have been displayed at exhibitions and on television broadcasts by state-controlled propaganda channel RT, but the Kremlin denies using them.
How the grenades are used
- After pulling the pin and securing the safety lever, the grenade is attached to a quadcopter (a four-rotor drone).
- The operator flies it over Ukrainian positions and drops it into a dugout.
- Toxic smoke quickly fills the space. Soldiers either put on gas masks or flee for air.
- Once they leave cover, Russian troops open fire.
You libs are always so confident of your stereotypes. RT’s coverage rarely interests me. Any honest map maker knows the direction this conflict is going
Yeah, because maps surely do tell us how well a war is going…
Dirt isn’t what determines victory or defeat in a war. It never has. It’s whoever has to stop fighting first. Russia is losing their ability to refine oil, and their citizens are being made to get by without gas for their cars, as one example where Russia is struggling. Not to mention all the dead and their inability to field vehicles larger than a motorcycle for the most part now.
(Also, if we’re using taking ground as a measure, Russia is moving literally slower than a snail’s pace. IIRC a snail would have crossed Ukraine by now. Russia, at their average pace, would take another few decades, and they’ve been gaining very little ground recently —in fact, they’ve lost a not-insignificant amount recently too.)
Tell me you have no idea about what’s going on with the front line without actually saying it…
City after city, field after field, the Ukrainians contest impossible encircled positions, taking huge losses. It will be the same in this next batch of cities unless the Ukrainians can pull their head out of their ass and actually have strategic vision.
If you want to actually know what’s going on, here are two solid neutral mappers to watch:
Do westerners really believe this? The Ukrainians do some damage to one refinery and suddenly the world’s commodity superpower is struggling to fuel its vehicles?
Are you actually believing the Russian casualty figures put out by the Ukrainians? Objective evidence suggests that the casualty numbers are actually reversed, or in other words that the Ukrainians are reporting their own casualties as Russians.
“For the most part” doing lots of heavy lifting here. Motorcycle units / DRGs are just more evidence that we are in a new phase of the war. The Ukrainian lines are so porous that these tactics have proven effective in weakening the Ukrainian rear (logistics, fpv nests etc)
The Russian objective is the strategic defeat of the Ukrainian military. The primary measure is attrition. If the Ukrainians stopped defending encircled cities, then the encirclement of major cities would have less of a bearing on attrition, but that’s not the world we live in.