On June 17, 2025, the world marks the 100th anniversary of the signing of one of the most significant instruments in the field of international humanitarian law — the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (the Geneva Protocol).

The Geneva Protocol laid the foundation for the international legal ban on the use of chemical and biological weapons, becoming a symbol of global consensus on the inadmissibility of weapons of mass destruction. Its provisions were later expanded and reinforced by such international instruments as the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Despite the adoption of these additional treaties, the Protocol remains one of the cornerstones of the modern system of international humanitarian law.

The 100th anniversary of the Protocol is being observed against the backdrop of its blatant violation by the Russian Federation. Ukraine has consistently informed the international community about the systematic use of hazardous chemicals by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, particularly tear gas grenades of the "RG-Vo" type.

From February 2023 to May 2025, 9,388 cases were documented in which Russian occupying forces used munitions containing hazardous chemical substances, including 2-chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile (CS), chloroacetophenone (CN), as well as chloropicrin and mercaptans (malodorants). Additionally, 2,509 cases of Ukrainian service members seeking medical assistance for symptoms of chemical exposure of varying severity were recorded.

Two reports by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), dated November 18, 2024, and February 14, 2025, confirmed that the evidence provided by Ukraine contained the CS agent — a riot control agent that is prohibited under Article I, paragraph 5 of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Geneva Protocol was once humanity’s response to the horrors of the First World War. Its adoption was a decisive and principled act of collective moral responsibility.

Today, as the Russian Federation continues to flagrantly violate international law, adherence to these principles has become even more urgent and relevant.

In this regard, Ukraine calls on all UN Member States, including the States Parties to the Geneva Protocol and the Chemical Weapons Convention, to take all necessary actions to hold the Russian Federation accountable for its violations of international law and ensure that such crimes do not occur again in the future. 

The absence of accountability will encourage new war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide, and crimes of aggression not only against Ukraine but against the entire civilized world.

Ukraine calls for the creation of new instruments to enforce such fundamental norms of international law and punish those who violate them. This is the only way to put an end to crimes, restore consensus on the unacceptability of the use of weapons of mass destruction, and ensure that the horrific atrocities of the past are never repeated.