The Council of the European Union has decided to impose sanctions on three units of the Russian Armed Forces involved in the development and use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. This was announced in an official press release from the EU Council.
Among the units targeted by the sanctions are the Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops, the 27th Scientific Center, and the 33rd Central Research and Testing Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense. All these entities are part of the Russian armed forces.
The decision to impose sanctions was based on reports from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), published in November 2024 and February 2025. These documents confirmed the presence of chemical substances, including CS (2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile), in samples collected on Ukrainian battlefields.
The EU Council’s statement emphasizes that Russia has provided no convincing explanations regarding the use of these hazardous substances. “Given the seriousness of the situation, the EU calls on the OPCW to take measures to identify those responsible for the use of chemical agents in the war,” the document states.
To date, European sanctions against the use and proliferation of chemical weapons cover 25 individuals and six organizations. Their assets within EU countries are subject to freezing, and they are prohibited from receiving financial resources. Additionally, these individuals are banned from entering EU member states.
In March 2025, Colonel Valeriy Weber, Deputy Head of the Main Directorate for Mine Action, reported that since the start of the full-scale war, the Russian army has used munitions containing hazardous chemical substances against the Armed Forces of Ukraine over 6,900 times.
In 2024, France24 published a report discussing Russia’s use of chemical weapons in the war against Ukraine. It specifically mentioned chloropicrin – a tear and suffocating gas whose use is banned under international law. This gas was first used by Russian troops during World War I, and later by France and Germany. Chloropicrin was employed to force enemy soldiers to remove their gas masks, after which the more dangerous mustard gas was deployed, explained toxicology expert Rob Chilcott.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stresses that Russia’s use of chemical weapons constitutes a serious violation of international rules of warfare and disregards obligations enshrined in the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons.
