Most countries around the world, including Russia, have signed a 1993 international convention banning the use, production, development or stockpiling of chemical weapons. Russia is one of 65 countries to have not only signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, but also ratified it.
Kallas’ comments add to a growing sense of alarm in EU capitals that Russia is escalating its campaign to subdue Ukraine, unleashing larger and larger nightly attacks by missiles.
The worsening onslaught, which coincides with an ongoing summer offensive by Russia, prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to announce Monday that he would support a bill penalizing Moscow via powerful tariffs on Russian exports.
However, the fact that Trump has said he would only approve the secondary sanctions against Russia after 50 days if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t stop his assault of his own accord has led to disappointment in Europe and Ukraine.
Trump’s announcement that he will allow NATO to buy U.S. weapons for Ukraine is also sitting awkwardly with European officials. Asked about the move, Kallas said she welcomed the possibility of delivering more weapons to Ukraine, but added that Europe would “like to see the U.S. share the burden.”
Trump, however, has said the U.S. would not keep financing Ukraine’s defense. “We’re not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they’re going to be paying for it,” Trump said, referencing “very rich” European allies.
Kallas said: “If we pay for these weapons, it’s our support, it’s European support.”
Sinphony_of_the_nite on July 16th, 2025 at 02:40 UTC »
Took me a second to find out which chemical weapons they are using, tear gas and chlorpicrin. Chlorpicrin is also a type of tear gas but nastier.
That should probably be mentioned since I’m immediately imagining they are using nerve agents hearing this.
These chemicals are still banned for war in the convention Russia signed, but definitely not rising to the same level of concern as nerve gas or mustard gas since the police use tear gas against their own citizens. The chloropicrin sounds worst than normal tear gas though. I’ll have to look more into its effects.
razordreamz on July 15th, 2025 at 23:51 UTC »
Words and actions are two separate things. If all you do is say words, well we all know what happened last time.
macross1984 on July 15th, 2025 at 23:37 UTC »
Russia has been fighting dirty the moment they invaded Ukraine. They don't care what the world think of them and will not stop unless they are defeated by force or bankrupted for the second times.