Washington: US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Sunday said Russia will face more consequences from the US if it uses chemical weapons in it’s invasion of Ukraine.
A report by CNN quoted Thomas-Greenfield saying, “What we see happening is, again, this is a false flag effort by the Russians. They are advancing what they might intend to do. We’ve seen it happen before. They are the ones who have used chemical weapons … And we are concerned that they may use chemical weapons in Ukraine.”
She further said, “We’ve been clear if they escalate to this level, we will respond aggressively to what they are doing. You’ve seen the consequences so far of our actions against Russia and against Putin, and they are feeling those consequences. And they will feel more if they take this unfortunate decision to use chemical weapons.”
The US and NATO have advised that Russia may use chemical weapons or create a “false flag” operation where they are used in its attack against Ukraine.
Notably, earlier in March, US President Joe Biden also warned Russia “will pay a severe price if they use chemicals.”
The US had earlier found that the Russian government used chemical weapons in the 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny and in 2018 against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in England. Both determinations led to sanctions under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, which requires the President to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions if a country is found to have used chemical weapons.
The US has also said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is supported by Russia, has used chemical weapons on its people dozens of times during the war there.
(Inputs from CNN)
first published:March 20, 2022, 8 p.m.