Thursday, March 28

Chemical and biological weapons: what they are and types


The possible use of chemical and biological weapons on Ukraine has come to the fore this week, as the war becomes more and more bloody. The United States believes that Russia could use this type of weaponry after Moscow has accused Washington of financing a military biological program for kyiv. Moscow make sure you found tests about it in Ukrainian laboratories. In fact, Russia has requested an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council to deal this Friday with what he called “the biological military activities of the United States on the territory of Ukraine”.

For its part, United States has described these accusations as “false” and has warned that Russia could be planning the use from chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, under the pretext of responding to that alleged threat. The White House even points out that Moscow could also use these weapons as part of “a false flag operation” in the midst of the war in the Ukrainian country. But what are the chemical and biological weapons?

A chemical weapon is a chemical substance which is used for intentionally causing harm or death through its toxic properties, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Ammunition, devices and other equipment specifically designed to weaponize toxic chemicals.

Typically, the concept of a chemical weapon would be that of a toxic chemical within a distribution system, such as a bomb or artillery shell. However, this definition would only include a small part of the items that are prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Therefore, currently the definition of a chemical weapon includes all toxic chemicals and their precursors. There are exceptionsin those cases in which they are used for permitted purposes by the Convention in consistent amounts for the end goal.

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A biological weapon, which are considered part of the of mass destructionis any kind of biological agentmicrobial or not, natural or recombinant, and the products of a toxic nature derived from it (toxins), which have injurious, disabling or lethal action on humans, animals or plants. According United Nationsthis type of weapons can be deadly and its highly contagious effects.. Likewise, the consequences of the deliberate release of biological agents or toxins by state or non-state actors could be dramatic. In addition to the tragic loss of life, these events could cause food shortage, environmental catastrophes, economic losses and the generalization of the disease, fear and distrust among the population.

No, the international community banned the use of chemical and biological weapons after the First World War. After the use of toxic gas in the conflict, in 1925 signed the ‘Protocol on the ban on use in war of asphyxiating, toxic or similar gases and of bacteriological media’, which established clear regulations in accordance with international law.

There is a Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) who seeks to achieve world free of chemical weapons and the threat of its use. According to the OPCW, there 193 states committed with the CWC, so that 98% of the world’s population theoretically lives under the protection of this convention. In addition, it has been verified destruction of 99% of declared chemical weapons stockpiles by possessor states. Russia is a signatory to the convention.

Likewise, the ban of 1925 was reinforced again with the Biological Weapons Conventionthe first multilateral disarmament treaty in ban the development, production and storage of a whole category of weapons of mass destructionwhich entered into force in 1975.

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Also, at the Second Review Conference (1986) it was agreed that the states parties would have to put into practice a series of confidence building measures to prevent or reduce the incidence of “ambiguities, doubts and suspicions”as well as to improve international cooperation in the field of biological activities for peaceful purposes.

The precedents of Syria and Iraq

The last time chemical weapons were used in a war was in the syrian warin 2018. The regime of Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack in the city of Duma. At that time -since 2015-, Russia there was already entered openly in the contest and acted on the ground as Assad’s ally. Since 2012, this region, in addition to other locations such as Idlib, were attacked numerous times with this type of ammunition. The United Nations (UN) investigated the different cases and concluded that the responsable It was him Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Also, in 2015, the Islamic State used mustard gas -considered a chemical weapon- against the kurds in iraq. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons claimed to have found symptoms of sulfur mustard use in 35 Kurds.




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