LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – A minister has warned that if Vladimir Putin decides to deploy chemical weapons in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Nato may be forced to interfere.
Russia should think twice about taking such a stance, according to James Heappey, Armed Forces Minister, because it could result in “an international response.”
Officials in the West are concerned that, in order to speed up the struggle, Moscow may resort to biological and chemical warfare.
When asked if the deployment of such weapons would influence the West’s decision not to involve the military, Mr Heappey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “President Putin needs to be clear that the use of chemical weapons is just the most despicable thing that anyone can imagine.”
As horrifying as the images of an artillery strike against a hospital that are seen on the television screens today, they pale in comparison to the suffering and devastation that chemical weapons wreak.
He added when asked if it would be a “red line” that he doesn’t believe it’s useful to get into any definitive commitment right now about where that red line rests. But, in his opinion, President Putin needs to be extremely clear about when other nations have used chemical weapons, it has had an international response.
He said he believes the US is correct to declassify the intelligence so that Putin is aware that they knew that he was considering it. He should urgently consider what has happened in other nations where this has been employed.
During the Syrian civil war, the Assad administration, which was backed by Russia, utilised chemical weapons, and officials fear that Moscow may use the same technique in Ukraine.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said last night that the world should be “on the lookout” for Russian biological and chemical weapons use.
“Russia’s baseless assertions” concerning purported US biological weapons facilities and chemical weapons development in Ukraine, she claimed, might be a “clear tactic” by the Kremlin to attempt to justify its unproved, unjustified and unprecedented attack on Ukraine.
Ms Psaki continued, now that Russia had made these bogus allegations, and China appears to have backed this propaganda, all nations should be on the lookout for Russia to use biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine, or to stage a false flag operation using them.
Russia has already warned that it could employ thermobaric weapons, also known as vacuum bombs, in the Ukraine conflict, and it has already been criticised for dropping cluster bombs on residential areas.
