Pear Drops And Poison

Stalemate in Ukraine

In three weeks' time, the war in Ukraine will have lasted as long as the First World War. The two conflicts have often been compared. As on the Western front from the end of 1914 onwards, in Ukraine too the war has settled into a trench-bound stalemate of attritional ferocity in which, on both sides, advances are minimal and casualties heavy. At least, that was true until more recently when Ukraine's adroit use of innovative drone technology began to tip the balance, resulting in small advances for the Ukrainians and causing staggering Russian casualties of up to 35,000 men a month (according to normally reliable estimates) - a rate of loss that the Russians cannot currently replace with new recruits.

Russian Gas Attacks

One parallel between the Ukraine war and WW1 that is less remarked upon has been the use on the battlefield of poison or toxic gas. To date, only the Russians have done this, despite the fact that Moscow, like Kyiv, is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention that bans such warfare. Western intelligence agencies have confirmed that, from 2022 onwards, the Russians have deployed gas in Ukraine on well over 9000 occasions, mainly in the form of tear gas and chloropicrin, an asphyxiating agent. In response, in May 2025 the EU imposed further sanctions on Russia.

Poison Gas and World War One

The received narrative is that the Germans first used gas in WW1, but in fact the first recorded gas attack was carried out by the French, who used tear gas grenades in August 1914 to stop German advances in Belgium and parts of France. The Germans retaliated in October that year around Neuve Chapelle, firing shells that on detonation caused sneezing fits in the victims, leaving them vulnerable to enemy attacks. Once trench warfare set in, despite pre-war agreements banning the use of chemical weapons, both sides explored ways to boost their advantage with poison gases and so break the stalemate. In April 1915, at the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans started using chlorine, which was delivered by pressurised cylinders dug in on the German side which sent a yellow-green cloud into the enemy's lines. The choking effect of chlorine gas caused havoc among the French and Algerian troops, who fled in terror: only the failure of the Germans to capitalise on this success, which apparently caught them by surprise, prevented their breakthrough across a five-mile front. The trouble with gas cylinders was that, if the wind changed, your own lines could be hit, as happened in September 1915 during a British attack at Loos, when in certain parts of the British line the chlorine clouds blew back, causing 2000 casualties and 7 deaths. As the war went on, more toxic gases were developed by both sides, as well as more efficient means of delivering them (mainly in artillery shells) and the provision of gas masks. Phosgene and mustard gas were the most potent. Neither caused widespread fatalities, but then their purpose was primarily to incapacitate the enemy and leave them defenceless in the face of follow-up advances: mustard gas, for example - which the Tommies called 'pear drops' owing to its sweet, sickly smell - caused extremely painful internal and external blisters and left many men blinded. Soldiers in WW1 were understandably terrified of gas attacks, but it's unclear what impact they had on the course of the war: Britain and France each recorded only some 8000 gas fatalities overall, but the Russians had over 50,000. These figures of course take no account of those gas victims who died after the war or who were left disabled by their condition.

Impact in Ukraine

Compared to WW1, the use of gas warfare in Ukraine appears to be much more limited and far less blatant, restricted to the Russian side only, which has deployed it in drones and grenades in a haphazard, almost furtive manner. It's clearly not going to be a war winner for the Russians, nor will it solve their current military problems - and it might even rebound against them in the court of world opinion (Putin and his generals are already wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court). In this regard, Ukraine is wise not to respond to the Russians in kind, just as it has taken pains to target military and industrial centres and avoided civilians (the Russians, by contrast, have deliberately targeted civilians). But long wars have a habit of compelling each side to compete in a race to the bottom. If Ukraine's current (rather successful) strategy of taking the war into Russia continues - and Moscow still refuses to settle - then Russian civilian casualties will undoubtedly rise, even if only as collateral (to use that most horrible of military euphemisms). This will inevitably increase the bitterness between the two sides and may make ending the war even harder. Or it may, at last, make Putin see sense.

British soldiers of the 55th West Lancashire Division, blinded by tear gas during the German Spring Offensive of 1918, line up for treatment at an Advanced Dressing Station near Bethune, France, By the end of WW1, 124,000 tons of poison gas had been produced by all sides. In total, non-fatal gas casualties were officially put at almost 1,200,000 for the whole war. The figure for deaths attributable to gassing was around 85,000.