Ukrainian experts have expressed serious suspicions that the Russian army might have used chemical substances on the front line.
This was stated by the head of the Chernivtsi Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination, Viktor Bachynskyi.
According to him, since the beginning of 2025, about 500 bodies of deceased Ukrainian soldiers have been delivered to the bureau. In most cases, death resulted from explosive injuries (over 96%), but some bodies had no visible injuries. This may indicate a potential poisoning by toxic substances.
Bachynskyi mentioned that during autopsies of some bodies, medical staff lost consciousness, prompting the institution to acquire special gas masks. The use of protective equipment stopped the instances of losing consciousness, which, according to experts, is further evidence of harmful substances being present in the tissues of the deceased.
«If a body has no visible injuries, a logical question arises: what caused the death? We suspect chemical exposure. The gas masks helped, and this only reinforced our suspicions», he emphasized.
Currently, laboratory studies of biomaterials are ongoing at the bureau, but the process is very slow due to a lack of modern equipment. According to Bachynskyi, a mass spectrometer would allow identifying the substance in less than an hour, but its cost reaches 8 million UAH, and the bureau does not possess such a device.