[News Terms] Suspected Use of 'White Phosphorus' by Russian Forces

'White Phosphorous (WP)' is a bomb made from white phosphorus, an allotrope of phosphorus (P). In modern warfare, it is mainly used as an incendiary bomb to destroy targets using fire or flames.

White phosphorus is the only allotrope of phosphorus that is highly toxic to humans. When ignited, it produces a large amount of smoke, making it also useful as a smoke bomb. In the past, it was used as a flare, but due to its toxicity and fire hazards, it is rarely used nowadays.

When white phosphorus bombs are dispersed, they react with oxygen in the air to form 'phosphorus pentoxide (P4O10)', generating intense heat, flashes, and smoke, spreading toxicity. Once combustion starts and it adheres to the human body, water does not extinguish the fire; it causes suppuration and gangrene, and removing and reapplying bandages can reignite the fire, making it a weapon of mass destruction.

Smoke is rising from a destroyed building in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, the largest battleground in the Ukraine war.
[Photo by Bakhmut AP/Yonhap News]

According to the Geneva Protocol and the United Nations (UN) Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), which prohibit the use of biological and chemical weapons in warfare, incendiary bombs cannot be used in civilian residential areas or densely populated civilian facilities. However, these agreements only categorize incendiary bombs without specifically mentioning white phosphorus bombs, and because white phosphorus's primary purpose is 'smoke formation,' it is not subject to international regulations like incendiary bombs. For this reason, it is known to be occasionally used against military facilities or soldiers in modern warfare.

On the 6th (local time), the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense posted a video on Twitter showing a city engulfed in flames, claiming that Russia used white phosphorus bombs in non-occupied areas of Bakhmut. The British BBC, which analyzed the video, reported that although the exact time of filming is unclear, the location appears to be near a children's hospital in the western part of downtown Bakhmut. BBC analyzed that a type of incendiary bomb was used in the attack but could not confirm the use of white phosphorus specifically.

The reason Ukraine emphasized 'non-occupied areas' seems to highlight that Russia violated international agreements prohibiting the use of incendiary bombs in civilian residential areas rather than military zones.