On Monday, the British Defence Ministry tweeted that Russia might use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine in response to a staged attack on Russian troops.
In what it called an intelligence update, it cited no evidence in support of the assertion. United States officials and NATO chief have earlier also made similar assertions.
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The Twitter post said: “Such an operation could take the form of a faked attack, a staged ‘discovery’ of agents or munitions or fabricated evidence of alleged Ukrainian planning to use such weapons.”
In its statement, the Defence Ministry said it had not seen any evidence supporting Russia’s accusations that Ukraine planned to use chemical and biological weapons.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden had also said that if Russia used chemical weapons against Ukraine, they would pay a “severe price.”
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In a statement published on Friday, the United Nations claimed it had no evidence that Ukraine possessed biological weapons. At the same time, Washington and its allies accused Russia of spreading the unproven claim in advance of launching its own chemical or biological attack.
An interview in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag quotes NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg as warning that Russia may use chemical weapons following its invasion of Ukraine and that such an act would constitute a war crime.
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“In recent days, we have heard absurd claims about chemical and biological weapons laboratories,” Stoltenberg said, adding that the Kremlin was inventing false excuses to justify events that could not be justified.
“Now that these false claims have been made, we must remain vigilant because it is possible that Russia itself could plan chemical weapons operations under this fabrication of lies. That would be a war crime.”
He added that although the Ukrainian people were courageously resisting the Russian invasion, the coming days are likely to bring even greater hardship.
(With inputs from agencies)
