The U.S. is planning a provocation in Ukraine by using banned toxic chemicals and blaming it on Moscow, Russian Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, Kirillov claimed that a shipment of chemical substances arrived in the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine on February 10, accompanied by a group of foreign citizens. Under the international signal system, the shipment containing 16 sealed metal boxes was designated as having an incapacitating class of chemical weapon agents.

He added that another shipment, which arrived in Kramatorsk on February 19, delivered shrapnel with special labeling, warning it was previously completed with damaging elements, containing liquid irritants.

Meanwhile, after toxic chemicals and munitions arrived in Ukraine, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Mike Sullivan claimed that Russian troops plan to use chemical weapons in the special military operation area at a seminar on the situation in Ukraine on February 22. Besides, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also announced the delivery of 55,000 sets of personal protective equipment and gas masks, as well as 13,000 individual chemical packages, which primarily contain antidotes to nerve agents, Kirillov said.

"The facts of the simultaneous supply of toxic chemicals and means of protection against them indicate an attempt to carry out large-scale provocations using the combat psychotropic toxic substance BZ during the conflict," Kirillov stressed.

Agent BZ (3-quinuclidinyl benzilate) provokes acute psychosis, loss of orientation, hallucinations and memory disorders, and it is prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Kirillov said the U.S. thought that the international community will not be able to launch an effective investigation amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and it could "escape responsibility, while the blame would be shifted on Russia."

Kirillov assured that those behind provocations with the use of toxins against the Russian side would be identified and punished as Russia has labs at its disposal that make it possible to identify the country of origin of such chemicals.

He added that stationary and mobile facilities for radiation, chemical and biological monitoring activity in the zone of the special military operation also provide for the exposure of chemical threats and timely response measures.

There was no immediate comment on Kirillov's claims from the U.S. side, but it officially refuted Russian allegations about the use of chemical weapons in October last year.

At the time, a special session of the BWC in Geneva at Russia's request and centered on biological weapons accusations against the U.S. and Ukraine was convened. U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price condemned alleged Russian attempts to spread disinformation after the meeting reached no resolution following eight closed-door meetings. 

"The United States and Ukraine presented a thorough, in-depth series of presentations that strongly refuted Russia's absurd and false claims of U.S. biological weapons development and bio-labs in Ukraine," he said in the statement.

The U.S. government has long been claiming that Russia may use chemical weapons in Ukraine first before resorting to a nuclear confrontation with NATO if Russian troops lose ground on the battlefield.

(With input from agencies)