Fears are mounting that Vladimir Putin could be preparing to deploy chemical weapons in Ukraine in an effort to break the country’s resistance to Russia’s invasion.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that officials are “on the lookout” for the use of banned weapons after Moscow claimed without evidence that Kyiv is considering the use of non-conventional weapons. She described the allegation that Ukraine was planning to use chemical weapons as an “obvious ploy”.
Boris Johnson warned that Moscow is “saying that there are chemical weapons that are being stored by their opponents or by the Americans” so that “when they themselves deploy chemical weapons – as I fear they may – they have a sort of a maskirovka, a fake story, ready to go”.
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More than 4.5 million people have now been displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The majority are currently in Poland and other neighbouring countries.
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