Media agencies reporting from Ukraine have been hearing reports of a potential chemical attack in Mariupol, the Ukrainian city besieged by Russian forces.
Serhiy Orlov, the city’s deputy mayor, told BBC news agency on the phone that the city council has confirmed a “chemical poisoning” delivered by a Russian drone.
“We cannot provide more detailed information,” he told BBC. “But we have confirmation from the military that this has happened.”
The allegation that chemical munitions had been used against Mariupol originally came from the Azov battalion – a Ukrainian military unit with links to the far right, the BBC reported.
The BBC reported that It is not clear how many soldiers were affected, but the battalion said its fighters had suffered minor injuries, including shortness of breath, with one man reportedly collapsing with “cotton legs”.
The BBC said that the agency cannot verify this allegation independently. Confirming anything in the area is extremely difficult, and the full picture of what is going on in the besieged port city is still unclear, the BBC said.
According to the BBC report, Russian forces continue to hammer Mariupol, which sits just a short distance along the coast from the Russian border. Capturing the city is one of Moscow’s core aims in the war.
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