In the press
News Roundup
This section is updated frequently by our staff and aims to provide a centralized location for news and publications pertaining to chemical weapons. Inclusion on this list does not imply endorsement of the views, author, website, etc. by the Coalition or any of the organizations or individuals in our network.
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22 March 2022
The United States has not yet seen any concrete indications of an imminent Russian chemical or biological weapons attack in Ukraine but is closely monitoring streams of intelligence for them, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.
20 March 2022
Ukraine submitted a request to the OPCW for “bilateral assistance from States Parties in order to protect against chemical weapons,” invoking Article X of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
19 March 2022
Drug-discovery AI can be inverted to create chemical weapons, scientists find (The Morning Brew)
A machine learning-powered molecule generator designed 40,000 molecules that scored within Collaboration’s “desired threshold” of toxicity, including known nerve agents, like VX, but also potentially new compounds that are even more toxic than well-known chemical agents.
19 March 2022
1995 sarin attack victims go online to inform, warn young people (The Japan News)
For the first time since the Aum Supreme Truth cult carried out its deadly sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system almost 27 years ago, an online event was held to connect survivors with young people born after the atrocity.
19 March 2022
Washington Post journalist Joby Warrick provides a brief history of Russia’s chemical weapon program, “gray warfare,” and what experts are saying about the potential for chemical weapons use in Ukraine.
11 March 2022
Lawmakers press intel officials over possible Russian chemical, nuclear attacks (The Hill)
CIA Director William Burns said intelligence leaders “take very seriously” the threat of a chemical weapons attack in Ukraine and said the decision to declassify and release intelligence previewing Putin’s likely moves has served to deter action and unify a global response.
11 March 2022
The United States and its allies have intelligence that Russia may be preparing to use chemical weapons against Ukraine, U.S. and European officials said Friday, as Moscow sought to invigorate its faltering military offensive through increasingly brutal assaults across multiple Ukrainian cities.
11 March 2022
Could Russia use chemical weapons in Ukraine? (The Economist)
“[W]e should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false-]flag operation using them,” warned Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, on March 9th. “I’ll make you one other prediction,” noted Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, a day later. “The stuff that you are hearing about chemical weapons…is straight out of their playbook.”