CNN: Russian aggressors employ poison gas as weapon

The Ukrainian military, repelling Russian aggression in the Zaporizhzhia region, faced a new threat – the use of poison gas as a weapon by the occupiers.

CNN reported that.

According to a Ukrainian military medic, over the last week in the Orikhiv area, nine cases were recorded when Russians dropped caustic and flammable gas from drones on Ukrainian positions, resulting in the death of one soldier.

According to the affected soldiers, the enemy first uses gas to cause panic, followed by conventional shelling or UAV attacks.

"At first, I saw smoke. We ran out of the trench, and suddenly, the gas lit up. The trench was on fire. This gas burns and blinds you; you can't breathe, instantly affecting your throat. We didn't even have a second," said one of the soldiers.

A Ukrainian intelligence official said on condition of anonymity that the Russians use a type of CS – tear gas, which is used during mass riots and can temporarily incapacitate a person by irritating the eyes, nose, lungs, and skin. It is noted that the UN Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons prohibits the use of means of combating mass unrest during war.

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As the commander of the Ground Forces of Ukraine's armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi noted, to capture new settlements in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, the Russian occupation forces have begun to actively advance on the Kupiansk, Lyman, and Bakhmut fronts in recent weeks.

ISW writes that Ukraine's armed forces continue to conduct offensive and defensive operations in several directions.

On the temporarily occupied left bank of the Kherson region, the work of Ukrainian defenders is not easy, but it is progressing.

Ukraine's armed forces repelled 21 enemy attacks on the Bakhmut front last day and held occupied positions on the Kherson front. Missile troops hit two areas of Russian remote mining. Only in the past day 105 clashes have taken place at the front.

In addition, on December 18, the occupiers lost another 1,140 occupiers. The total number of losses of the Russian army since the beginning of the invasion is approximately 348,300 troops.