The acting governor of the embattled Kursk Oblast has accused Ukraine of poisoning civilians with chemical weapons during the incursion into Russian territory.
During a Monday meeting with Vladimir Putin, Aleksey Smirnov told the president that a group of workers for the Rosseti power company “came under fire” from Ukrainian forces over the weekend, Russian state-run news agency RT reported.
According to Smirnov, while the workers took cover in a local police station, they were targeted with shells “contain[ing] chemical weapons,” and alongside several police officers and the head of the village council, were “poisoned” as a result.
Newsweek could not verify the claim made by Smirnov, and has contacted the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for comment on the governor’s allegations.
Accusations of the kind made by Smirnov are far from a new occurrence in the ongoing conflict, and form part of the concurrent propaganda war undertaken by both Moscow and Kyiv in a bid to tarnish the reputation of their opponent.
Since the outbreak of the war, both sides have traded accusations of chemical weapons use, and other violations of international law.
In May, the U.S. Department of State accused Russia of using the chemical weapon chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops, and brought sanctions against a number of Russian agencies and individuals in response.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an intergovernmental body founded to implement the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, has said that allegations of chemical weapons use by both sides were so far “insufficiently substantiated.”
However, it added that the situation in Ukraine “remains volatile and extremely concerning regarding the possible re-emergence of use of toxic chemicals as weapons.”
Gavriil Grigorov/AFP via Getty Images
The meeting between Smirnov and Putin was convened to discuss the ongoing crisis in Kursk, where Ukrainian forces have continued to make significant headway since last Tuesday’s surprise cross-border raid.
Smirnov went on to say that, since the start of the incursion, 12 civilians have been killed in the region, with a further 121 injured.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, via Telegram, Ukraine has so far lost up to 1,610 servicemembers, over 200 combat vehicles, as well as four anti-aircraft missile systems.
During the Monday meeting, Putin also reacted to Smirnov’s claim that Ukraine now controls 28 settlements in Kursk, and called on the country’s military to “knock the enemy out of our territories.”
The president added that that the incursion had closed the door to any potential negotiations with Ukraine, saying: “What kind of negotiations can we have with those who indiscriminately attack civilians and civilian infrastructure, or pose threats to nuclear power facilities? What is there to discuss with such parties?”
Associated Press
Ukraine and Russia are also currently trading blame for the fire that broke out at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine on Sunday.
According to Russian state-owned energy company Rosatom, the fire was the result of “nuclear terrorism” by Ukraine, while Zelensky said that the fire was caused by the actions of the “Russian occupiers.”
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