On January 17, a Ukrainian Infantryman rushed to pull on his gas mask after a Russian gas attack. He later made a statement that the gas isn’t lethal but it actually just imparies you targeting “It’s like pepper spray, it makes your eyes tear up. It’s not lethal, but it disturbs and knocks you out. It makes it very difficult to carry out your duties once you’ve inhaled it,”. The Russian military has increased use of illegal riot controlling gases especially on the front lines of this war in order to push the Ukranians back and be able to make larger advancements in the east. This is an illegal form of warfare and from the Ukrainian military has recorded over 900 uses of this riot control agent in the past 6 months next to the 1,400 uses total. It has caused concern across Ukraine and they have implemented gas mask drills countrywide.
This article is very important because not only does it show the actual war crimes Russia is committing on a daily basis but also how desperate Russia is to gain ground. It also raises the question of what could potentially happen if a country tries to hold Russia accountable for what they’re doing. This entire region is essentially walking on eggshells with this ongoing conflict trying not to create a spiral effect with their involvement.so if we see this continue which we most likely will because of Russia’s desperation to win the war it’ll be very interesting to see what will happen.
This article relates to what we’ve been discussing in class with international law because while the use of these agents are illegal what country or countries will actually step up to stop it. No one wants to take a defined stance in this war because if you start sending your troops on the ground it could create a spiral effect.