like almost everything, the greeks already invented it. Count the iliad he fear of Odysseus to drink from the river of Troy because, he said, the Greeks used dead snakes to poison the water. From Homer to Ukraine, where the occupied territories are poisoning the food and drinks of the invaders as a tactic of war. The latest example, this Monday: 20 Russian soldiers have died in Melitopol with intoxicated food prepared by the inhabitants of the city.
“The invaders continue to suffer casualties, even out of combat“, read this Friday’s report from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The report says that these deaths occurred on April 24 “in one of the units” deployed by Russia in Melitopol, in the Ukrainian province of Zaporizhiaalso partially occupied by Russians, southeast of Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the poisoning was caused by “an unknown substance”. But the truth is that historically poisoning has been used as a defense tactic in the occupied territories. You don’t have to go to Greece, you don’t have to travel so far in time. In Vietnamlocal insurgents were contaminating the water supplies of US soldiers with Orange agent until the early 70’s.
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Similarly, since Russia started the war the February 24, 2022Ukrainian and international media have repeatedly reported cases of Russian soldiers being poisoned with food served by Ukrainian civilians.
Two months after the invasion, Ukrainian intelligence services reported that two Russian soldiers were killed and dozens fell ill on Iziumnear Kharkov, due to some chocolate filled buns…and poison.
“As a result, two invaders were killed at the same time, while others 28 soldiers from the Third Motorized Rifle Division of the Russian Army were transferred to intensive care,” wrote the Main Intelligence Directorate.
Russian soldiers in occupied areas.
The curious thing is that this report came when there was already data that other 500 Russian soldiers they had been hospitalized after being intoxicated with their alcoholic beverages. Russia did not take it lightly, as jinxed by the trade of invading a sovereign country, calling the incidents “non-combat losses.
summer poisonings
On August 20, the Russian Ministry of Defense directly accused Ukraine of using chemical warfare tactics. He said that several soldiers stationed in Zaporizhia had to be admitted to the hospital with signs of severe poisoning in July.
“Russia is preparing tests that support the results of all tests,” the ministry said. without clarifying how many casualties they had suffered for this circumstance. The alleged tests showed that the food had introduced into their bodies the botulinum toxin type B. It is a neurotoxin that can cause botulism when ingested in previously contaminated food products.
The truth is that “the poisoning could have been caused by expired canned meat.” Nevertheless, Ukraine did not deny it, as it usually does, and bad rations have been massively denounced by the occupation forces since the first days of the war.
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Later, in November, the Russian Army shot 28 Roma in the Ukrainian occupied territories. They claimed that they had poisoned the vodka of an entire company of soldiers.
The event was discovered when Ukraine intercepted the call from a russian soldier to his wife. “Do you know the chaos is happening in the towns around here? Recently, the Military Police killed 28 gypsies. They put them against the wall and shot them. The reason is that they had poisoned an entire company with vodka“said the soldier.
“This murder is a real tragedy for the Roma community. We express our sincere condolences to the family and friends of those killed, and we also ask those who witnessed this tragedy to come forward. The culprit must be convicted and punished,” Chirikli, a Roma organization in Ukraine, said in a statement. The Russian army justified itself by saying that so only 50 of the 96 poisoned soldiers survived.
defense tactic
Beyond Homer’s mythology, there is indeed evidence that the Greeks poisoned their enemies’ water supplies. During the First Holy War (6th century BC), for example, contaminated the wells of Kirra, a besieged city near Delphi. Tactic that the Romans soon appropriated.
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During the Second World War, resistance groups in Europe used poisoning as a way to fight Nazi forces and their collaborators. These poisonings were carried out by Contamination of food and drink at Nazi headquarters and other strategic places.
One of the best known cases of poisoning during World War II was the poisoning of the soup in the prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III in Poland in 1944which would have deserved a movie of Billy Wilder.
The British and American prisoners of war they had been digging a tunnel to escape the camp when they were discovered by the Nazis. In retaliation, the nazis executed 50 prisoners of war and threatened to take even more drastic measures. In response, the prisoners organized a plan to poison the Nazis’ soup. They used a toxic substance called tuberculin for and several of them became seriously ill.
Interestingly, another significant case took place in Ukraine. It was in Lviv, near Poland, which currently still resists being occupied by Russia. there in 1943, members of the Polish resistance used cyanide to contaminate the water that the Nazis drank. At least 3,000 German soldiers and officers died or became seriously ill as a result of the poisoning.
History resorts to advanced types of dramatic ironies. Poisoning has been one of the preferred ways for Vladimir Putin to sow terror and his authority during all his years in office.
In cases like the murder of Alexander Litvanenkoa former Russian spy intoxicated with polonium-210 in London in 2006, his art of poisoning reached levels of sophistication that would make Homer proud. Paradoxically, now the poison becomes a enemy weapon they are having a hard time fighting in Ukraine.
