Read all the news about the war in Ukraine in this dossier.
The soldiers involved were stationed in the village of Vasilivka, near the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, where the fighting has been fierce in recent weeks. According to Moscow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has personally authorized the use of the toxic substance.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s interior ministry said in a response that the alleged poisoning may have resulted from eating expired meat. Botulinum toxin comes from a bacterium – Clostridium botulinum – that sometimes occurs in spoiled food and standing water.
The Russians say they have evidence for the poison use and will soon send it to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. Both Russia and Ukraine are members of that organization that was set up to prevent the use of chemical weapons ever again.
Botulinum toxin is a poisonous substance that acts on nerve cells. People who have been exposed to it have to be on a ventilator for a long time. In the last century, the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan and Germany experimented with the poison as a biological weapon, but in 1975 they signed a treaty banning its use.