‘Russia will pay severe price if it uses chemical weapons’

US accuses Russia of using UN council for ‘disinformation’; UN says not aware of any ‘biological weapons’ project in Ukraine

US President Joe Biden on Friday vowed that Russia would pay a “severe price” if it used chemical weapons in Ukraine, while also pledging to avoid provoking Moscow into “World War III”.

People cross the Irpin river as they evacuate from Irpin town next to a destroyed bridge, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, outside of Kyiv, Ukraine.(REUTERS)

Biden reacted after Russia accused Ukraine and the US of developing biological and chemical weapons - in what Western nations says is a ruse to lay the ground for Moscow’s own possible use of them in the conflict.

“I’m not going to speak about the intelligence, but Russia would play a severe price if they used chemicals,” Biden said as he announced a raft of new sanctions against Moscow.

At the request of Russia, the UN Security Council (UNSC) was holding an emergency meeting on Friday on the alleged manufacture of biological weapons in Ukraine.

The United States, like other Western nations, is sending millions of dollars of weapons such anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, as well as sharing intelligence.

But Biden again underlined that US forces would not fight in Ukraine, despite the desperate pleas of many Ukrainians.

“We will not fight a war against Russia in Ukraine. Direct confrontation between Nato and Russia is World War III -- something we must strive to prevent,” Biden said.

In 2018, Moscow accused the US of secretly conducting biological weapons experiments in a laboratory in Georgia, another former Soviet republic that, like Ukraine, has ambitions to join Nato and the European Union.

Moscow’s claims rejected

The UN on Friday said it was not aware of any biological weapons program in Ukraine. Russia’s move to convene the UNSC appeared to be backfiring on Moscow as members rejected the assertions as “a lie” and “utter nonsense” and used the session to amplify accusations that Russia has deliberately targeted and killed hundreds of civilians in its 15-day-old invasion that Russian President Vladimir Putin calls “a special military operation”

Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN high representative for disarmament affairs, told the council that the United Nations is “not aware” of any biological weapons programme in Ukraine, which ratified an international ban on such arms, as has Russia.

The Russian envoy to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, repeated the claim - without providing evidence - that Ukraine ran biological weapons laboratories with US defence department support.

Under a 2005 agreement, the Pentagon has assisted several Ukrainian public health laboratories with improving the security of dangerous pathogens and technology used to research. Those efforts have been supported by other countries and the World Health Organization.

The US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Washington was “deeply concerned” that Russia called the session as a “false flag effort” aimed at laying the groundwork for its own use of biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Although she did not immediately provide evidence of an imminent threat during the meeting of the 15-member council, she said: “Russia has a track record of falsely accusing other countries of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating.”

“We have serious concerns that Russia may be planning to use chemical or biological agents against the Ukrainian people,” she added.

“The intent behind these lies seems clear, and it is deeply troubling,” she said. “We believe Russia could use chemical or biological agents for assassinations, as part of a staged or false flag incident, or to support tactical military operations.”

Russia widens offensive

Russia widened its offensive in Ukraine on Friday, striking airfields in the west and an industrial city in the east, while the huge armoured column that had been stalled for over a week outside Kyiv was on the move again, spreading out into forests and towns near the capital.

With the invasion now in its 16th day, Russia appeared to be trying to regroup and regain momentum, with expanded bombardment and a tightening of its stranglehold on cities like Mariupol, the strategic seaport where civilians struggled to find food amid an intense 10-day-old siege.

While Russian forces continued to launch airstrikes in urban areas such as Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, they also pounded targets away from the main battle zones.

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russia used high-precision long-range weapons to put military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk in the west “out of action”. The Lutsk strikes killed four Ukrainian servicemen and wounded six, Lutsk mayor Ihor Polishchuk said. In Ivano-Frankivsk, residents were ordered into shelters in an air raid alert

Russian airstrikes also targeted for the first time the eastern city of Dnipro, a major industrial hub and Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, situated on the Dnieper River. Three strikes hit, killing at least one person, according to Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Heraschenko.

In another potentially ominous development, new satellite photos appeared to show the massive Russian convoy outside the Ukrainian capital had split up and fanned out.

Howitzers were towed into position to open fire, and armoured units were seen in towns near the Antonov Airport north of the city, according to Maxar Technologies, the company that produced the images.

The 64km line of tanks and other vehicles had massed outside Kyiv early last week. But its advance had appeared to stall amid reports of food and fuel shortages, muddy roads and attacks by Ukrainian troops with anti-tank missiles.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development expressed concern about the situation at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Friday following its takeover by Russian forces and a problem with its power supply.

Ukrainian military intelligence warned that Russia could deliberately cause a “catastrophe” at the decommissioned plant and blame it on Ukraine.

Ukraine also said on Belarus could be planning to invade its territory on Friday and accused Russia of trying to drag its ally into the war by staging air attacks on Belarus from Ukrainian air space.