UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accused Vladimir Putin of a “cynical” attempt to make up a pretext for using chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Johnson said he feared the “barbaric” Kremlin regime may be ready to use the banned weapons as its forces have failed to make the progress expected.
Speaking to Sky News, Johnson said: “The stuff that you’re hearing about chemical weapons, this is straight out of their [Russia’s] playbook.
“They start saying that there are chemical weapons that have been stored by their opponents or by the Americans, and so when they themselves deploy chemical weapons, as I fear they may, they have a sort of fake story, ready to go”.
He added: “It is a cynical, barbaric government, I’m afraid”.
Earlier, the US issued a similar warning on possible Russian chemical or biological weapons use.
Russian claims about US biological weapons labs, and chemical weapon development in Ukraine, were an “obvious ploy” to try to justify further premeditated attacks, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Source: BBC News