Will Ukrainians suffer the fate of Iraqis and Syrians? Russia’s and America’s toxic wars.

US President Biden has said NATO "would respond" if Russia used chemical weapons in Ukraine, at a summit in Brussels. Western nations have warned?Russia could be preparing to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.?Russia has used chemical weapons during past conflicts, in Chechnya and Syria, in violation of international law. Terrorists have used chemical weapons too, in Syria and in Iraq.

?Under the Biological Weapons Convention, Russia is not supposed to have any biological weapons, but they are thought to be violating that convention. Similarly, under the Chemical Weapons Convention, they’re not supposed to have any chemical weapons anymore, but are believed to have significant stocks. They have used small amounts of chemical weapons in assassinations or assassination attempts against dissidents, against Alexey Navalny and against Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

The Russian military has supported al-Assad in Syria since 2015. It is estimated that it “has used chemical weapons at least 50 times since the Syrian conflict began.” ?Russian Federation assistance to the Syrian regime may have facilitated and enabled the regime’s continued use of chemical weapons. Since September 2015 the Russian Government has been directly involved in the Syrian civil war, assisting the Syrian regime to execute its military offensive by providing Russian airpower and other material support to the regime, including support in siege and starve offensives in Aleppo and Damascus.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents (CBRN) have four key properties in common.

? Toxicity: a measure of the ability of a toxic substance to cause harmful effects or death.

? Latency: the interval between exposure to an CBRN agent and the first signs and symptoms of illness or disease.

? Persistency: the capacity of an CBRN agent to remain capable of causing significant harm for a prolonged period of time.

? Transmissibility: whether an agent can be transmitted from one person to another. The main means of transmission of CBRN agents are cross-contamination and direct physical contact.

Officials have confirmed that the US military fired thousands of rounds of depleted uranium (DU) during two high-profile raids on oil trucks in Islamic State-controlled Syria in late 2015, the first confirmed use of this armament since the 2003 Iraq invasion, when it was used?hundreds of thousands?of times, setting off outrage among local communities, which alleged that its toxic material caused cancer and birth defects.

In 2014, in a UN report on DU, the Iraqi government expressed “its deep concern over the harmful effects” of the material.?DU weapons, it said, “constitute a danger to human beings and the environment”. ?DU is radioactive. It is both a toxic chemical and radiation health hazard when inside the body, if ingested or inhaled?targeting organs such as the kidneys and lungs. DU—a waste product of nuclear power generation—is effective in anti-tank projectiles. The radioactive metal reaches high temperatures on impact with tank armour, melting it into minute particles that are carried on the wind as dust. Scientists argue that this radioactive dust contaminates air, water and soil, and has harmful consequences for human health: high incidences of cancer, leukaemia and severe birth defects.

Iraqi scientists with the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Science and Technology identified at least 350 sites in Iraq as being contaminated with DU.?Even mild radiation is dangerous and increases the risk of cancer. In 2004 Dr Janan Hassan of the Basra Maternity and Children’s Hospital said that as many as 56% of all cancer patients in Iraq were now children under 5 years old, compared with just 13% 15 years earlier. She stated: “it is notable that the number of babies born with defects is rising astonishingly. In 1990, there were seven cases of babies born with multiple congenital anomalies. This has gone up to as high as 224 cases in the past three years.”

As Russian forces suffer heavy losses, Putin may?believe that chemical weapons attacks could provide a military advantage or boost his war’s domestic legitimacy. In a move reminiscent of the Iraq invasion by the US-UK coalition, Moscow has sought to justify its invasion and delegitimise the Ukrainian government through?accusations?regarding Kyiv’s alleged?intent?to develop or use weapons?of mass destruction. In a?tweet on March 9, the Russian Embassy claimed that "recently found documents" showed components of biological weapons were made in Ukrainian laboratories - with funding from the US Department of Defense.

Russian officials and media have also claimed in recent days that Ukraine was planning to build a so-called dirty bomb - which disperses radioactive material, while Russia's foreign minister has claimed Ukraine had been seeking nuclear weapons. It is feared that such claims could be used as the basis for a "false flag" event, a phrase coined for the practice of?pirate ships flying the colours?of other nations to deceive ships into thinking they were dealing with a friendly vessel. Over time, the term ‘‘false flag’’ came to be applied to any covert operation that sought to shift the responsibility on to a different party from the one carrying it out. Should Russia stage a “false flag” operation, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that “there will be a high price to pay” .