Tania Matiash, news editor.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that no one in Ukraine had developed any weapons of mass destruction.
He stated this in a video message.
"I am an adequate person. The president of an adequate country and an adequate people. And the father of two children. And no chemical or any other weapons of mass destruction have been developed on my land. The whole world knows this. You know this," he said addressing the invaders.
Zelensky noted that he was very concerned about the accusations of Ukraine by the Russian media.
"This worries me very much, because more than once we were convinced: if you want to know about Russia's plans, look at what Russia accuses others of. Look, the dispersal of such accusations in the Russian media shows that it is THEY who are capable of this. The Russian military, the Russian special services. It shows that they want it. They have already done such things in other countries. The same way! They announced themselves, organized themselves, complained themselves. And they will do more themselves," the President explained.
What are these accusations of preparing chemical attacks? You decided to "de-chemicalize" Ukraine? With ammonia? Phosphorus? What else have you prepared for us? Where will you hit with a chemical weapons? At a maternity hospital in Mariupol? At a church in Kharkiv? At “Okhmatdyt” children’s hospital? Or – at laboratories, most of which have been left since Soviet times and are engaged in ordinary science. Ordinary! AND NOT military technology, "Zelenskyy said.
Earlier, the USA warned that Russia can use the chemical weapons in Ukraine, having accused our state of it. White House spokesperson Jen Psaki stressed that it is Russia that continues to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, which has repeatedly used chemical weapons. It is Russia that has long supported the biological weapons program, which violates international law. In addition, Russia has a long and well-documented experience of using chemical weapons, including attempts to assassinate and poison Putin's political enemies.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that, with the US support, biological weapons that are "ethnically oriented" are being created in Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry also reported the capture of "experimental" birds from Ukraine, which allegedly can spread "bioagents that can selectively affect different ethnic groups."