‘Silent killer’: Russia boosts grinding Donbas advance with chemical warfare
‘Silent killer’: Russia boosts grinding Donbas advance with chemical warfare
Gasping for air from a trench in eastern Ukraine, an infantryman was ready for the worst when a suffocating white smoke spread into his position.
A Russian drone had just dropped a gas grenade into the trench, an internationally banned practice in warfare used to suffocate Ukrainian soldiers hiding inside. Forced out in the open, the Ukrainians immediately became vulnerable targets for Russian drones and artillery.
. . .
Russia has increasingly deployed chemical agents in its grand offensive to occupy the last cities in the Donbas region under Ukrainian control. The suffocation tactic is to take out entrenched personnel and dampen the morale of Ukrainian soldiers who – severely outmanned and outgunned – have been withdrawing village by village in the east for nearly a year.
This is beyond the pale. It's time to stop forcing Ukraine to fight with a hand tied.
This is beyond the pale.
But not surprising. Not for Russians.
Actually, Russia inadvertently originated the phrase.
The more you know 🌠
Yeah, there has to be a response to this. The Russians will continue to escalate their war crimes if there are not consequences. Weapons free Ukraine.
Fuck Putin and fuck Russia. Slava Ukraini
Sounds a lot like war crimes.
It's Russia. It'd be easier finding a "legal" needle in the haystack of war crimes.
Gas in WW1 changed the battlefield for about 6 weeks whilst they scrambled for gas masks, but after this it didn't have the effect either side thought it would. A stupid distraction that will earn Putin and his generals a trip to the Hague for sure
They'll never see the Hague, the whole argument that Putin and Xi are having is that laws should be enforced by strength of arms, and what're you gonna do about it?!?!
History never sounds pretty when it rhymes.
A gas mask wouldn't work for this though, right? If it suffocates by displacing oxygen then you'd need an SCBA, not just a gas mask. That's a lot more kit to supply and carry around.
The thing about air: there's a lot of it. Not many gases take that long to settle/dissipate. And a gas mask is pretty effective at filtering. I do imagine worst case scenario in the heaviest bombardment is a brief evacuation of current line of defense only, as this is what happened back in the somme. It was far more effective vs artillery: artillery regiments weren't equipped as well and thus they were denied counter battery fire for enough time to allow front lines to cross no mans land. Which were backed up by creeping barrages, which I haven't read much out in Ukraine yet
Did they have gas masks for the horses? (Honest question. I guess I could look it up but... Meh)
Yup, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=horse+gas+mask&t=fpas&iax=images&ia=images - loads of varities though I'm not sure on numbers deployed. Due to the rather static lines of defense I do believe the second world war actually saw more horses used! The nazis were always scrambling for oil and petroleum and thus they utilised stupendous amounts of horses
Yes, I've actually seen some in museums. I bet the horses hated them.
100 years after the First World War.
Everything old is new again.
War crimes are back on menu it seems. Or it always has been there?
With Russia? Always has been.
Later when the same thing is done back on them they will express their outrage that underhanded tactics like they do are used against them.
It'll be because someone shot their drone down or launched their armament back too. Or just the wind will carry it at their own
Is that title extremely confusing, or just me? I'm suffering from a concussion and was told to watch for signs of confusion.
Nah it's a strangely worded title you're good
"boosts grinding" is a bit awkward, because it's unclear which is a verb in this context. I hope you make a speedy and full recovery, TBI is no joke.
I had to read it a few times. It's confusing
It could've been written better, as it's very cumbersome to read the way it is. Especially since it starts with an "Adjective noun:"
Ah, so just tear gas. That's paradoxically both more banned and less provocative than, like, Sarin.
If they did actual chemical weapons, it's time for the next historical event. The US has apparently laid out what happens next in painstaking detail.
It is a chemical weapon. What historical event? The US does nothing but sit on its hands and talk a big game. They would probably confiscate the gas to be used on innocents in Gaza.
I feel like I answered that question already. "The US has apparently laid out what happens next in painstaking detail". I was not in the room, so I don't know what that means exactly, but it's a bunch of specifically allocated military facilities to be bombed out or something.
Please dump the polemic somewhere else. I'm upset about Gaza too.
I'll plug an interesting blog post on the topic of using chemical weapons. The post concerns itself mostly with lethal weapons, but I feel like some of the points apply here as well.
The essence is that for modern military systems, mobility and the relative cost of manufacturing, storing and employing (lethal) chemical weapons compared to protective equipment render them much less valuable than conventional explosive munitions. They see usage mostly between weaker static armies, which lack the equipment, training or command doctrines for modern warfare.
The banning of chemical weapons was done because they weren't generally very useful for the modern systems of the superpowers at the time. Russia cracking them out again suggests they no longer have all the capabilities of a modern superpower. Which probably isn't super new for most people, but might be worth spelling out anyway.
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