The ominous history of chemical weapons

However, war is war. The deadly hatred that characterises it implies opposing armies will use everything at their disposal to defeat the opponent. As a result, the Allies took Putin's threat to deploy chemical weapons in Ukraine seriously. Sarin and tabun, two very poisonous chemicals, are unlikely to have been employed in combat, yet they are lethal in small doses.

In the 1940s, Germans produced tonnes of both at three distinct ....