Drones, Gas, and Fear: Chemical Warfare In Ukraine's Trenches

Chemical warfare takes on a whole new dimension in eastern Ukraine, the scars of artillery and trench warfare pockmarking the landscape. 

The invisible enemy is brutal: the action of chemical agents by Russian forces against Ukrainian soldiers entrenched in Donbas. It is nothing new, just the revival of one of the most odious tools of war, which has returned to the battlefield in no less insidious form. 

The drones that drop gas grenades into trenches and dugouts force soldiers to leave their many months-won positions, creating an atmosphere of fear and vulnerability among Ukrainian forces. 

The article below looks at the use of chemical agents reportedly by Russia, the toll on Ukrainian soldiers, the historical roots of the use of chemical warfare, and the urgent need for an international response to prevent further escalation.

Donbas: A New Generation of Chemical War

Chemical warfare traces its roots back to World War I, where German forces employed chlorine gas in one of numerous attempts to break the impasse of trench warfare. 

History is repeating itself on the front lines of Ukraine today, with reports that Russian forces have deployed chemical agents in an effort to dislodge Ukrainian soldiers from defensive positions using tear gases like CS and CN among others. While tear gas doesn't have the lethal aspect of the early chemical weapons, like mustard gas, the tactical use of it on the battlefield is considered a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention that Russia signed, along with Ukraine.

In the disheartening reality of Donbas, where drones are setting the face of battle, reports from Ukrainian soldiers and military officials signal an increasing pattern of chemical attacks. According to data from Ukrainian military reports, Russia has deployed these agents in over 4,600 recorded incidents since the beginning of its full-scale invasion in 2022, with a significant ramping up of the frequency of attacks in 2024.

 Ukrainian troops, exhausted both physically and psychologically, now also have to fight silent and strategic chemical warfare, which creates a condition of continuous fear and anxiety.

The Human Toll: Stories from the Trenches 

With continuous fighting along the battlefront, Ukraine's soldiers have come to expect chemical attacks. 

Ihor is a soldier serving in the infantry not far from the village of Chasiv Yar and remembers an incident this February when a Russian drone overhead let off a gas grenade into his trench. Within minutes, he and his comrades were wrapped in white, choking smoke. 

They had to retreat from the position, now exposed to artillery and further strikes by the drones. Though Ihor survived the incident, the consequences of it were not short-lived; indeed, according to himself, he struggles with chronic respiratory problems and reduced capacity for physical activity-typical of the long-term health cost these attacks exact on soldiers.

In similar testimony from the same lines of defense, Vuhledar is home to the 116th Territorial Defense Brigade, for which Sergeant Vyacheslav does duty. Gas attacks day in and day out have left his unit on tenterhooks. Most soldiers without enough protection gear are left in a precarious state, sometimes having to make a tough decision between personal safety and what limited resources they can afford to commit towards gear. 

Where modern masks often cost hundreds of dollars, soldiers like Vyacheslav have to make the onerous choice between vital supplies their families need and protective equipment for themselves. It is such a shortage of resources that greatly heightens the psychological toll of fighting, placing soldiers in a position whereby a buzzing drone above automatically sends them into a panic.

Probably the most poignant account comes from Captain Mykhailo in the Pokrovsk region, who lost a comrade with a known respiratory condition to a gas attack. Trapped in a bunker surrounded by Russian forces, Mykhailo's unit had to endure their fallen comrade's presence for two days before they could safely retrieve his body. In all, official reports list only two soldiers as direct casualties of chemical attacks, but Ukrainian officers and soldiers suspect the actual toll is much higher, hidden beneath the horrors of trench warfare and the anonymity of battlefield casualties.

Chemical Warfare in the Age of Drones

Russia's modern approach to chemical warfare has brought together chemical agents and drone technology in a deadly synergy. 

Above Ukrainian positions, the skies are patrolled by unmanned aerial vehicles bound to an intention-and threateningly close-position to throw gas grenades on unsuspecting soldiers below. Chemical attacks, though not intended to kill forthwith, are carefully contrived to force Ukrainian forces into the open where they become easy targets for artillery and further drone attacks. 

According to Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the former commander of the U.K.'s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Regiment, this method fuses 21st-century technology with 20th-century chemical warfare tactics with devastating effect.

De Bretton-Gordon describes the terror of soldiers when gas grenades are deployed: "Your natural reaction is to get the hell out of there because it feels as though you are dying." This instinctive flight then leaves the Ukrainian soldiers in open territory, often exposing them to causalities beyond the point of the gas itself. 

This, in turn, has made chemical agents possibly a growing feature of modern warfare due to the increased accessibility and effectiveness of drones as delivery mechanisms, further muddying the lines of what has traditionally been considered conventional versus unconventional attacks.

Equipment and Preparation Challenges

The military in Ukraine is in something of a bind. The supplies of protective equipment, including gas masks, have turned out to be inadequate for the scale of Russia's usage of chemical warfare. 

Although Ukraine received some 100,000 modern gas masks from Western allies in 2024, such numbers fall drastically short of an estimated 300,000 masks it needs to cover soldiers on the front lines. With only limited numbers of soldiers having access to high-quality Western masks, most units have to revert back to outdated Soviet-era masks, which offer protection against hardly anything in the line of modern chemical agents.

In addition to the lack of protective equipment, tens of thousands of soldiers also do not know how to act in the event of a chemical attack. Soldiers who often are recruited in large numbers into a conflict characterized by attrition rarely arrive at the front line with more than basic military training, let alone specialized knowledge in chemical warfare defense. 

For seasoned soldiers, the demands of near-constant combat rotations leave little time or energy for additional training. Dan Kaszeta from the Royal United Services Institute, a chemical warfare expert, underlines the increasing danger that an absence of appropriate training may further pose: "The real danger is not just the gas itself but the potential of agents to ignite nearby materials, producing toxic smoke that worsens the effects."

Detection and Identification Challenges

Of all the concerns which Ukraine faces in trying to deal with these Russian attacks with chemicals, the inability to identify the exact nature of the chemical agent being used plays a huge role. 

According to Colonel Artem Vlasiuk of Ukraine's Support Forces' Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Command, the Ukrainian military does not possess the sophisticated detection equipment required to identify exactly what chemical agents are in use. 

The Ukrainian forces have identified a number of common agents employed, such as CS and CN tear gases and chloropicrin; however, the majority of cases remain unidentified due to a lack of sophisticated detectors. These detectors, ranging in cost from $10,000 to $600,000 apiece, are integral tools that Ukrainian officials need to provide concrete evidence that would serve as the basis for proving Russia's breaches under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon says it is easy to spot these agents if the resources are available, but access to detection equipment remains really expensive. It has been tough for Ukraine, which takes a more pragmatic view and mostly equips troops with basic necessities like bullets, to secure the money or backing for such technology. For the moment, international gatherings of top leaders, including the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, are the best forum for Ukraine to request the equipment it needs. 

But sophisticated detectors rank low on the list of priorities compared with other, more pressing needs, given the across-the-board resource demands of this war. The Psychological and Physical Impact of Chemical Warfare

CBRN warfare does not only incapacitate soldiers bodily, but it is a psychological weapon that eats into morale and instills fear. 

On the field, even the experienced soldiers will be totally out of their wits by such a gruesome sight as chemical exposure. Ukrainian forces report everything from burning skin and irritated eyes to sharp nausea and chest tightness. Besides mere temporal incapacitation, these symptoms reduce their combat effectiveness over time. The psychological impact goes equally deep, as each drone heard overhead brings increased stress for soldiers wondering if it might carry a chemical attack.

With such attacks, physical and psychological consequences for soldiers like Ihor, Vyacheslav, and Mykhailo will be inevitable. Every contact with chemicals leaves its mark, both in health and sense of safety. The psychological burden of withstanding chemical warfare, added to the never-ending combat pressures, erodes unit cohesion and decreases the resilience of Ukraine's front-line defenders. 

Morale is broken, and such underlines the insidiousness of chemical warfare as a tool for demoralizing an enemy without having to engage full-scale attacks.

The International Response: Calls for Accountability and Sanctions

The appeals by Ukraine to the international community have centered on bringing Russia to book for the breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. 

As much as Ukraine has been able to submit its complaints to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, commonly referred to as OPCW, proof has remained impossible to find because of limitations in sample collection in an active war theater. Allegations of the use of chemical agents against either party have been traded between Ukraine and Russia, further muddling the investigation process by the OPCW.

Still, Western allies have imposed sanctions against Russian entities and individuals they say are linked to chemical warfare programs, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Former British Colonel de Bretton-Gordon warns of an international accounting that needs to take place, even as he says use of the chemical agents on the battlefield sets a very dangerous precedent by Russia. (Russian forces) are testing chemical weapons as a means of breaking through the impasse on the front lines," he says. "The world community needs to draw a clear line in the sand before Russia escalates further to even more deadly agents."*

A New Precedent in Modern Warfare

With the reemergence of chemical agents as tactical tools on the front lines of Ukraine, military strategists and policymakers are compelled to think through what it now means for the nature of modern warfare. 

The use of drones and targeted chemical attacks in this conflict reflects the trend toward hybrid tactics that increasingly blur lines between conventional and unconventional warfare-an omen for grave things to come in future conflicts, insofar as other nations may take note of Russia's use of chemical agents and the response, or lack thereof, from the international community.

It is a harbinger of a new and terrible frontier in military strategy-the return of chemical warfare to the battlefield, especially via the use of drones. The Ukrainian defense thus also faces the daunting task of mobilizing the world for effective intervention. What happens in Donbas is a bellwether for the rules of engagement in all future wars. Without a forceful international response, such normalisation of chemical warfare risks decades of globe-spanning efforts to eradicate these deadly weapons.

It is on the front lines of Ukraine that chemical warfare has made a grim comeback-one that humanity once sought to leave in the past. 

Notably, the deployment of chemical agents by Russia-lass drones above the trenches in Donbas does have echoes of a truly terrible development-the one that had occurred during World War I-but it is turned just that much scarier by the improvement in modern technology. 

With the Ukrainian military suffering both physical and psychological damage from these brutal attacks, the international community is thereby forced to decide how to act in view of this violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention: to take concrete steps to punish this war crime or risk normalizing chemical warfare as an accepted element of modern conflict. 

For the soldiers on the front lines, this is an immediate and personal impact; for the rest of the world, it is a question of what the future of warfare is going to look like and where the lines of morals need to be drawn.

(reuters, dpa, afp)