The 113th Session of the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concluded in The Hague on 9 October 2026. Ukraine took part as a member of the Executive Council, to which it was elected for the 2026–2028 term.
Ukraine informed the Council that its competent authorities had recorded 14,009 incidents involving the use of munitions containing toxic chemicals by the Russian Federation. In three Technical Assistance Visits conducted at Ukraine’s request, laboratories designated by the OPCW confirmed the presence of CS — a riot control agent whose use as a method of warfare is prohibited outright by paragraph 5 of Article I of the Convention.
The delegation drew the attention of States Parties to a pattern: almost every case of chemical weapons use before the Council is associated with the Russian Federation. The use of toxic chemicals as a method of warfare against Ukraine, the findings of the Investigation and Identification Team on attacks in the Syrian Arab Republic and the cases of chemical weapons use on the territory of other States Parties are not separate files: together they describe one consistent course of conduct towards the Convention.
Ambassador of Ukraine to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the OPCW Andriy Kostin also informed the Council of the combined Russian strike of 7 October 2026. In Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region, hundreds of kilometres from the front line, a cruise missile hit a five-storey residential building. Following the completion of the search and rescue operation, 22 people are known to have been killed there, among them 5 children. Across Ukraine, that strike caused destruction in 10 regions and injured more than 100 people. 8 October was declared a day of national mourning.
Speaking on countering chemical terrorism, Ambassador Andriy Kostin said this of the Russian Federation: “A State Party that uses toxic chemicals as a method of warfare against Ukrainian defensive positions on a near-daily basis, in whose case laboratories designated by this Organisation have confirmed the presence of a riot control agent in samples collected in Ukraine, and that strikes residential buildings at night, is not a partner in countering terror. It is the reason this item remains on our agenda.”
By consensus, the Council submitted the revised programme and budget of the OPCW for 2027, together with its recommendation, to the 31st Session of the Conference of the States Parties, and adopted a decision on the designation of laboratories for the analysis of authentic biotoxin samples and guidelines for the conduct of biotoxin proficiency tests — a matter the previous session had deferred.
Ukraine thanks the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW for its constructive engagement and cooperation, and its international partners for their continued support.
The Ukrainian delegation will continue to work with the Technical Secretariat and with all States Parties so that the global prohibition of chemical weapons is upheld and those responsible for its violation are identified and held accountable.