The head of the NATO military alliance said Tuesday he fears Russia might use chemical weapons as part of its ongoing war in Ukraine.
Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), told reporters at a news conference in Belgium that allies are concerned Moscow could stage a “false flag operation” potentially using chemical weapons.
“They are making absurd claims about biological labs and chemical weapons in Ukraine, (and) this is just another lie,” he said.
“We are concerned that Moscow could stage a false flag operation, possibly including chemical weapons.”
His comments come as Russia continues to push out misleading information that the United States is assisting Ukraine in developing biological weapons.
On Tuesday, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council was quoted by state news agency Ria Novosti that U.S. advisers in Ukraine are helping Kyiv to create biological and nuclear weapons.
The United States denied Russian accusations that Washington was operating biowarfare labs in Ukraine, on March 9, calling them “laughable” and suggesting Moscow may be laying the groundwork to use a chemical or biological weapon.
The United Nations said last Friday it had no evidence Ukraine had a biological weapons program, while member nations used a special security council session to blast Moscow for spreading “a lie” and targeting civilians in missile strikes.
“Any use of chemical weapons would be a violation of international law,” Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
“It is also extremely important that Russia understands that it is unacceptable if they consider any use of chemical weapons.”
Stoltenberg did not elaborate on how NATO would respond to such an attack, but U.S. President Joe Biden said last week Russia would pay a “severe price” if it used chemical weapons in Ukraine.
How did this conspiracy theory start?
Russia’s conspiracy theory of chemical weapons manufacturing in Ukraine has picked up steam on social media and even on Fox News, with Tucker Carlson delivering an impassioned monologue about the “secret labs in Ukraine” last Wednesday.
The thread of truth that started this web of conspiracies was a real 2005 partnership between the U.S. Defence Department and the Ukraine Ministry of Health. The two decided to work together to try to stop the spread of infectious diseases — not to create them.
As a part of this pact, the U.S. Biological Threat Reduction Program works with Ukrainian officials to “consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern in Ukrainian government facilities,” according to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.
Those efforts have been supported by other countries. The World Health Organization told Reuters last week it had advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in its public health laboratories to prevent “any potential spills” that would spread disease among the population.
Stoltenberg did not present any evidence that would show a Russian chemical weapon attack was imminent on Tuesday, and neither did Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations.
“Russia has a track record of falsely accusing other countries of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating,” she said last week.
“The intent behind these lies seems clear, and it is deeply troubling. We believe Russia could use chemical or biological agents for assassinations, as part of a staged or false flag incident, or to support tactical military operations.”
Stoltenberg will meet with defence ministers from NATO countries and non-NATO countries on Wednesday to discuss the full-scale war in Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24.
Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory, but to destroy its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.
Kyiv and its Western allies have said this is a baseless pretext to invade a country of 44 million people to topple its government, which Putin regards as a puppet of the United States.
— with files from Rachel Gilmore and Reuters.