The United States and its allies have intelligence that Russia may be preparing to use chemical weapons against Ukraine, the U.S. and European officials said Friday, as Moscow sought to invigorate its faltering military offensive through increasingly brutal assaults across multiple Ukrainian cities.
Security officials and diplomats said the intelligence, which they declined to detail, pointed to possible preparations by Russia for deploying chemical munitions and warned the Kremlin may seek to carry out a “false-flag” attack that attempts to pin the blame on Ukrainians, or perhaps Western governments.
The officials, like others quoted in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter. The accusations surfaced as Russia repeated claims that the United States and Ukraine were operating secret biological weapons labs in Eastern Europe –
an allegation that the Biden administration dismissed as “total nonsense” and “outright lies.” Any use of poison gases in Ukraine would violate a decades-old international treaty banning such weapons, and represent a dangerous turn in Russia’s two-week-old military offensive against its neighbor.
Meanwhile, according to a new report from the AP, U.S. soldiers continued to deploy Friday to Europe, joining thousands already sent overseas to support NATO allies amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. About 130 soldiers from the 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade, lined up with rucksacks inside a terminal at Hunter Airfield in Savannah before marching outside and boarding their chartered flight.
It departed amid grey skies and rain. Republican U.S. Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter, of Pooler, Georgia, was among those in attendance. He was seen “fist-bumping” many of the soldiers as they boarded the plane.
The battalion’s soldiers are in addition to the estimated 3,800 soldiers from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division who have deployed in recent weeks from nearby Fort Stewart, said Lt. Col. Lindsey Elder, the division’s spokesperson. Spec. Danton Belucio, who has served in the Army for three years, said he looked forward to going on his first deployment.
