Meanwhile, Wojciech Lorenz, a senior analyst at the International Security Programme at The Polish Institute of International Affairs, told CNBC that “you can never know” what Russia will do, but when it comes to the threat of chemical weapons use, “you have to treat it seriously.”
“Russia has already used chemical weapons on the territory of NATO. They used chemical weapons in Britain, they used chemical weapons to poison and in their attempts to kill Navalny … and it clearly indicates that they have chemical weapons that they should not have because they signed the chemical weapons treaty,” he said.
Andrew Weber, former assistant secretary of defense for the Obama administration, and who now sits on the nonprofit Council on Strategic Risks, said this weekend that aside from the chemical weapons that have been associated with Russia in past incidents, some kind of biological weapon could be used instead.
“I think we need to take it very seriously, especially given the escalation of the disinformation campaign by Russia,” he told New Zealand Radio’s Morning Report on Saturday. As well as the possible use of chemical weapons, he said Russia could deploy biological weapons in Ukraine which the U.N. defines as disease-causing organisms or toxins disseminated with the intention to harm or kill humans, animals or plants.
“Biological weapons would be different. They might use something like anthrax, for example, which is not contagious and wouldn’t spread back to Russia. But the Russian illegal biological weapons program includes things like plague, tularemia [a rare infectious disease] and even smallpox,” he said.
Both chemical and biological weapons are used to terrorize the opponent, and to cause mass casualties, he said. But he expected a massive response from the West should Russia resort to using them, saying “all bets would be off, there would definitely be a very very strong, united international response to any use of chemical or biological weapons.”
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/14/could-russia-use-chemical-weapons-in-ukraine-the-threat-is-very-real.html