UK ‘working urgently’ to establish if Russian chemical weapons used on Mariupol

The British government is investigating unconfirmed reports that Russian forces in Ukraine have released chemical weapons in Mariupol after a spokesman for pro-Moscow forces threatened their use to “smoke out” the besieged city’s defenders.

 “Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold Putin and his regime to account,” Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, wrote on Twitter. “We are working urgently with partners to verify details.”

Meanwhile in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, local officials said that tanks and armoured vehicles were massing as Russia continues to refocus its efforts there. The UK has warned that fighting is likely to intensify over the next two or three weeks.

This morning’s key developments:

• Karl Nehammer, the Austrian chancellor, said he was “rather pessimistic” after a face-to-face meeting with President Putin brought no breakthrough.
• The mayor of Mariupol said at least 10,000 civilians had died in the siege of the city.
• President Zelensky said that Ukraine was now “one of the most contaminated [countries] by mines in the world” after retreating Russian forces “did everything to make the return to these areas ... as dangerous as possible”.
• Nearly two thirds of Ukrainian children — 4.8 million — have fled their homes since the February 24 invasion, the UN children’s agency said.

The northeastern city of Kharkiv suffered fresh bombardments by Russian forces last night, which were reported to have killed 11 people, including a seven-year-old girl. Fourteen others were taken to hospital. Further fighting was also reported around the southern cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv.

In Mariupol Ukrainian troops said that Russian forces “used a poisonous substance of unknown origin against Ukrainian forces and civilians”, although the effects were not severe.

The Ukrainian Azov brigade, which is defending Mariupol, reported that three people showed clear signs of chemical poisoning after a Russian drone dropped a toxic substance on the city. According to Andriy Biletsky, the far-right nationalist leader of the volunteer Azov battalion, they suffered from shortness of breath and irregular muscle movements.

Serhiy Orlov, the city’s deputy mayor, told the BBC today that the city council had confirmed a “chemical poisoning” delivered by a Russian drone. “We cannot provide more detailed information,” he said. “But we have confirmation from the military that this has happened.”

The report came after a statement by a spokesman for Russian proxy forces in the Donetsk region, who are trying to drive the Azov battalion out of Mariupol’s Azovstal steel mill.

 “There are underground [floors] in the steel mill,” Eduard Basurin said. “We could have a lot of our soldiers killed, and the enemy won’t suffer casualties. That’s why currently we should figure out how to block this mill and find all ways in and out. And after that we should ask our chemical forces to find a way to smoke these moles out of their holes.”

Basurin told the Interfax news agency that chemical agents had not been used in Mariupol.

Ned Price, a spokesman for the US defence department, said: “Before today there was credible information available to us that the Russians may have been preparing to use agents, chemical agents, potentially tear gas mixed with other agents, as part of an effort to weaken, to incapacitate the Ukrainian military and civilian elements that are entrenched in Mariupol, using these agents as part of an effort to weaken those defences.”

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, said Kyiv was investigating the claims, but also said “there is a theory that these could be phosphorous munitions”. She added: “Official information will come later.”

The UK has also expressed concern that Moscow could use white phosphorus munitions in its bombardment of the city, which has sustained a siege of nearly 50 days. Last night Mariupol’s deputy mayor, Serhiy Orlov, said that Ukrainian forces were still holding out.

In the latest of its morning updates, the Ministry of Defence highlighted the anticipated Russian assault in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. It added that Russian forces were also pushing towards Kramatorsk, where dozens of people were killed last week in a rocket strike on a crowded railway station.

James Heappey, minister for the armed forces, told Times Radio this morning that it is “quite likely” Ukraine will secure victory in the east and there is a looming fight “between two very well matched military powers”.

 “The Ukrainians have got the wind on their back right now, they’ve seen off the initial advances,” he said. “In doing so they have defeated some of Russia’s best regiments and battalions. The next wave of Russian troops that come at them in the Donbas will not therefore be Russia’s best, they won’t be equipped with the best of Russia’s equipment. What we’re looking forward to now is a fight between two very well matched military powers even if the Russians [are] numerically superior, Ukrainians are well dug in in positions that they have held for eight years or so.”

He disagreed with the historian and Times columnist Max Hastings, who writes today that Ukraine will be unable to expel Putin’s forces from the Donbas or Crimea. “I don’t think that Max Hastings is right to say that Russian victory in the east of Ukraine is inevitable,” Heappey said. “In fact, I think it’s quite likely it could be the other way around, and therefore nobody in the West should be rushing to trade away Ukrainian territory. That is something for President Zelensky alone [to do], and right now his resolve is to fight, and therefore we will support him.”

The Ukrainian prosecutor-general’s office said on Telegram that at least 186 children in Ukraine had been killed and 344 wounded since the start of the invasion. The highest number of casualties were in the eastern region of Donetsk, where 113 deaths had been recorded, Ukraine said. A total of 938 educational institutions had been damaged by shelling — 87 completely destroyed, the statement added.

Putin said today that Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine would undoubtedly achieve what he said were its “noble” objectives.

At an awards ceremony at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East, Putin said Moscow had no other choice but to launch a military operation to protect itself and that a clash with Ukraine’s anti-Russian forces had been inevitable, according to Russian news agencies.

An international delegation of faith leaders, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, will visit Ukraine today to show solidarity with those affected by the invasion.