Russian Roulette.

Mick Jagger warms up.

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1. The United States has accused Russia of using chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops in violation of the international ban on their use. The State Department issued a statement which claimed Russia likely used the weapons including the choking agent chloropicrin to gain an upper hand. “The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident and is probably driven by Russian forces’ desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield,” it said. Chloropicrin is listed as a banned choking agent by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which was created to implement and monitor compliance with the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Chloropicrin’s use dates back more than a century and was deployed against allied forces by German troops in the First World War. (Source: thetimes.co.uk)

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2. For Ukrainian soldiers, surrendering to the adversary on the battlefield is a lot like playing Russian roulette: The risk of being executed on the spot is all too real. A report by the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), made public on today, states that since December 2023, at least 15 Ukrainian soldiers have been shot dead after surrendering. It has called for investigations into "war crimes," so that those responsible can be brought to justice. It followed another report published on March 26 by the UN's human rights watchdog, which established that Russian forces likely executed more than 30 Ukrainian prisoners of war (PoWs) during the winter months. (Source: lemonde.fr/en)

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