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A soldier from the Azov Battalion, which first reported a Russian drone had dropped a "poisonous substance" on troops and civilians in Mariupol. DPA/PA Images

Explainer: How could it be determined that Russia used chemical weapons in Ukraine?

There are unconfirmed reports that chemical weapons were used in the city of Mariupol.

ALLEGATIONS THAT RUSSIA may have used chemical weapons in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol have caused international concern, as reports suggest as many of 10,000 people in the besieged city may have died.

These allegations have yet to be fully investigated, but if the use of chemical weapons or agents was confirmed, it could lead to an escalation in the response of key Western players. 

Experts have said caution should be taken around any suggestion of chemical weapon use before solid evidence is presented. They have also questioned what motive Russia would have for using these types of weapons in this particular conflict.

Here’s what we know about the situation so far. 

The allegations in Mariupol

Claims first emerged earlier yesterday from Ukraine’s Azov battalion that a Russian drone had dropped a “poisonous substance” on troops and civilians in Mariupol.

The force claimed people were experiencing respiratory failure and neurological problems.

“Three people have clear signs of poisoning by warfare chemicals, but without catastrophic consequences,” battalion leader Andrei Biletsky said in a video message on Telegram.

He accused the Russians of using the chemical weapons during a strike on the city’s large Azovstal metallurgical plant.

An aide to Mariupol’s mayor noted on Telegram the alleged chemical attack was “not currently confirmed”.

“We are waiting for official information from the military,” Petro Andryushchenko wrote.

Britain has said it is working with partners to verify reports that Russian forces may have used chemical weapons in Mariupol, but as of now the reports are unverified. 

What is a chemical weapon?

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, defines a chemical weapon as a chemical used to cause intentional death or harm through its toxic properties.

Munitions, devices and other equipment specifically designed to weaponise toxic chemicals also fall under the definition of chemical weapons.

Under the CWC, the definition of a chemical weapon includes all toxic chemicals and the substances used to manufacture them, except when used for purposes permitted by the Chemical Weapons Convention – in quantities consistent with such a purpose.

Types of chemical weapons include;

  • Toxins such as ricin
  • Choking agents like chlorine
  • Blister agents such as sulfur mustard or nitrogen mustard
  • Blood agents like hydrogen cyanide
  • Nerve agents such as sarin and the commonly-known Novichok
  • Riot control agents such as tear gas or pepper spray

Depending on the chemical used, they can cause symptoms such as choking, skin burns and blisters, damage to vital organs, interference with the nervous system, seizures and paralysis. For some people who are exposed to these types of chemical agents, the effects can be fatal. 

Speaking to The Journal, Alastair Hay, Professor of Environmental Toxicology at the University of Leeds said the prognosis for a person exposed to one of these weapons depends on a number of factors such as their proximity, severity of exposure and the type of agent or toxin used.

“Chlorine was extensively used in Syria and chlorine is an asphyxiant, it displaces oxygen from the air and people die because they’re not getting enough oxygen. There is no antidote to this – other than fresh air – so this one depends on how severe the exposure is.

“With mustard gas there is no antidote, just symptomatic treatment of the blistering and skin damage and providing support for any damage to the airways. There are long-term consequences for many who are exposed, people may recover in the short-term but many have problems decades later.

“With nerve agents there are antidotes but success requires prompt administration. If you’re exposed to a lethal dose in a house somewhere away from any medical treatment it can be a rapid and horrible death, within minutes.”

When have they been used before?

In World War I, phosgene, which is a choking agent and mustard gas, a blistering agent, were both used. 

Thousands of Kurdish civilians were killed in a chemical attack by Iraqi forces in the  Iraqi city of Halabja in 1988.

Sarin was also used in Tokyo in 1995 by a doomsday cult that released the nerve agent in the subway, killing 13 people and causing illness in thousands.

The most recent and most high profile example is the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

In August 2013, the Syrian opposition accused the Syrian government of using the nerve agent sarin in attacks on Eastern Ghouta and Moadamiyet al-Sham, rebel-held areas outside Damascus.

That same month the US blamed the regime for these attacks, which killed 1,429 people, including 426 children.

In September, a UN report found “clear and convincing evidence” sarin was used in the attacks.

US president Barack Obama did not carry out threatened retaliatory strikes. Instead he reached a deal with Russia on the dismantling of Syria’s chemical arsenal under UN supervision.

In 2016 a UN and Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) joint commission accused the regime of dropping chlorine-packed barrel bombs on two villages in rebel-held Idlib province in 2014 and 2015.

The commission also accused the Islamic State (IS) group of using mustard gas in 2015 in the rebel stronghold of Marea in Aleppo province.

In October 2016, the same joint commission found the Syrian army carried out a chlorine attack at Qmenas, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, the year before.

In April 2017, warplanes struck the Idlib town of Khan Sheikhun, killing 87 people, including 30 children. UN and OPCW investigators confirmed sarin was used and said Damascus was responsible. 

In response to the attack, then US president Donald Trump launched Tomahawk missiles against the regime’s Shayrat airbase.

In February 2018, residents of Saraqib, south of Aleppo, reported a dozen cases of suffocation after regime bombing. The OPCW later confirmed that the Syrian air force had used chemical weapons there.

The Novichok group of nerve agents were used in the poisoning of former Russian military officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England in 2018. Novichok was also used to poison Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020.

How are chemical weapons regulated?

Most countries have signed up to the Chemical Weapons Convention, but there are four exceptions: North Korea, South Sudan, Egypt and Israel. 

Professor Hay of the University of Leeds explained that the convention requires countries to destroy all stocks and to have no means of making chemical weapons.

It bans them from stockpiling these types of weapons or helping others to make them.

“Countries have generally complied as a result of that treaty and nearly 99% of the world’s declared chemical weapons have been destroyed,” he said.

“In 2017 Russia announced the destruction of the last of its 40,000-ton stockpile of chemical weapons. That was under the international inspection of the OPCW and there’s no question that what Russia said it had was destroyed. Most of the Russian stocks would have either been phosgene or mustard gas – which were both used in World War I – and nerve agents.”

He said countries are required by the OPCW to monitor certain chemicals and the ingredients used to make them. 

“They do that by monitoring industry and academic labs and defence establishments and the OPCW organises inspections of countries to verify that what they have reported is accurate,” he said. “The UK, for example, may have eight to 12 inspections per year or industry and defence establishments to check on the veracity of reports. The OPCW has been really diligent in carrying out these inspections and it does that globally.”

Why are they used and why would Russia use them in this instance?

“They’re used to frighten people,” Professor Hay said. “They are almost weapons of terror because often you can’t see them but they’re in the air you breathe. The idea that what you’re breathing in contains something that’s going to kill you terrifies most people – it terrifies me.”

He said that because troops have protective clothing and gas masks, chemical weapon use against soldiers is “essentially a waste of weapons” and this is why civilians, who have little or no protection, are targeted.

He said it would be “really self-defeating” for Russia to use chemical weapons at this point, but it is not completely out of the question.

“If they felt the Ukrainians were entrenched and well-defended and that no amount of heavy bombardment was going to be effective enough on their defences they might use something to penetrate into every crevice: remember, chemical agents are heavier than air so they go into every depression there is.”

Professor Hay said the situation in Ukraine is “unclear” but there have been suggestions of white smoke, which – if confirmed – could point to the use of white phosphorous. 

This chemical is used as an obscurant to hide troop movement and while it can poison people it is not technically classed as a chemical weapon because of its strategic military use. 

Hay said he has raised the issue with the OPCW because white phosphorus can have devastating effects and has been used as a weapon in countries such as Ethiopia.

How can these reports be confirmed?

Experts in this field have urged caution in relation to the reporting around these allegations as it is difficult to adequately assess the situation without an on-the-ground investigation.

Dan Kaszeta, a specialist in defence against chemical weapons, said it is possible that symptoms witnessed in Mariupol were caused by fumes from fires and explosions or from  burning industrial materials such as plastic:

He also questioned reports of an “invisible and odourless” chemical.

“This raises the question – how do you know it was there or tie it to the drone? Without environmental and/or biomedical samples, this will always remain an unknown.”

If there is some solid evidence that chemical weapons have been used, 

Professor Alastair Hay said Russia has adhered largely to the Chemical Weapons Convention, “aside from the use of Novichok, which it denies”.

The OPCW could investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in Ukraine, but it would have to be invited in to conduct an investigation.

“They need access and they also need to be protected so they would need guarantees of safety from both warring sides,” he said. “That has been difficult in the past because if a side feels it will be exposed as having used them or that its gaining an advantage then it will delay access in the hope that evidence will have disappeared. 

“With some chemicals such as chlorine you can get environmental evidence from bleaching of vegetation for example. A team would also interview victims and look at patients and hospital records, they would look for munitions, where they came from and take samples from munitions and also other materials such as concrete, tarmac, soil, clothing.”

He said teams also take control samples from areas they know have not been impacted by an attack for comparison. 

In the case of biological samples taken from victims, timing is crucial he said, as humans degrade and excrete chemicals. However it is possible to find evidence in the environment years after an attack.

“I was involved in an investigation in 1992 in Iraq with a group called Physicians for Human Rights and we established that chemical weapons had been used four years previous from soil samples we collected,” he said. “It had mustard gas, some samples had the nerve agent sarin.”

What could happen next?

An investigation by the OPCW is a possibility if Ukrainian officials invite an investigation team to assess the situation. The OPCW cannot decide to launch an inquiry in a country without an invitation. 

Fighting around Mariupol continues and this could delay any investigation as the safety of a team could not be guaranteed. 

The UK has said it is working to verify reports, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss describing the use of these types of weapons as “a callous escalation in this conflict”.

She said the UK would “hold Putin and his regime to account” if the reports were confirmed.

US Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said late yesterday that Washington was aware of the reports but could not confirm them.

“These reports, if true, are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine,” he said.

Russia has yet to comment on the allegations, but in a press conference today President Vladimir Putin labelled reports about civilian killings in the Ukrainian city of Bucha as “fake”.  

He compared the accusations to those concerning the use of chemical weapons by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “It’s the same kind of fake in Bucha,” Putin said.

- With reporting from AFP. 

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    Mute Nemethon
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    Jul 8th 2024, 9:32 AM

    Yayyyyy paid out so to pay for some of the holidays to Spain yippee. I volunteer with a charity and within the next few weeks we’ll be inundated with calls for help for to pay for uniforms. I think the BOS allowance should be paid out differently not in cash but a credit note therefore the money is used for it’s intended purpose and not wazzed up again a wall on holidays or extensions or nails etc.

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 9:58 AM

    @Nemethon: yes totally agree .

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    Mute P. V. Aglue
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    Jul 8th 2024, 10:38 AM

    @Nemethon: there’ll be an extra in the Christmas bonus allowance to help with election voting decisions

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 12:27 PM

    @Nemethon: also why is it payed so early in month sould be later

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    Mute Fiona Wyse
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    Jul 8th 2024, 10:09 AM

    Surely the back of school allowance should be reduced now that there is free primary school books and that the tablets for the secondary schools have also been reduced due to this initiative?
    I just feel sorry for all of the working dads who pay for all of the school fees as part of a maintenance agreement and don’t get the benefit of any of this money back from their taxes because it all is paid to the mother.

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    Mute CP
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    Jul 8th 2024, 10:30 AM

    @Fiona Wyse, fair play Fiona,

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 11:02 AM

    @Fiona Wyse: are you a parent do you know the cost of. Uniforms fleeces jumpers with crests on them. And only one s that benefit from the free school books is the principals . Still parents. Are asked /expected to pay. €80 +school fees. That is just primary school s and the secondary schools some of the schools that use the tablets parents pay for .

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    Mute Fiona Wyse
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    Jul 9th 2024, 11:17 AM

    @Karen Marten: I’m very aware of the cost of them, my husband has purchased all his children’s tablets, books, uniforms and school fees without any governmental assistance. Two tablets in 2 years, €1,500 and all back to school allowance paid to ex wife. It’s ok for us, we plan and manage that cost between us (it’s tight and we work two jobs) but some men might not have the luxury of having a partner to fall back on and help financially. When there is a maintenance order in place it should go to the primary payer of the school kit, not the mother exclusively as that outlay is removed from them so why should they be paid the benefit. I look forward to your explanation on this one.

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 10th 2024, 9:48 PM

    @Fiona Wyse some people need financial supports that’s why even those who have jobs. It’s called th cost of living I know what your problem is it’s crystal clear so obvious but I’m not going to get into that

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 9:55 AM

    Pity it’s so badly. Means tested so many working parents earning too much to avail but yet need it as uniforms getting more expensive every year.

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    Mute Toyo Ke
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    Jul 8th 2024, 10:13 AM

    @Karen Marten: I don’t agree, I am by anybody standards not a high earner, but if you pay your taxes, you have earned the benefit. Same for children’s allowance. Some can afford to put it straight into savings accounts, which doesn’t appear fair for alot of people, but they paid their taxes.

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    Mute marklars81
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    Jul 8th 2024, 10:25 AM

    @Toyo Ke: I think you do agree. You both seem to be saying it shouldn’t be means tested. I also agree, if you pay your taxes you should get more than a free dental cleaning once a year.

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 11:16 AM

    @Toyo Ke: are you for real cop on . How many parents you know have applied for this both working or one working and one a carer getting turned down because earning. €50 too much .

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 11:35 AM

    @Toyo Ke: those who can afford to go with out children’s allowance should apply to not receive it . .

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 11:38 AM

    @Toyo Ke:

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    Mute marklars81
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    Jul 8th 2024, 2:17 PM

    @Karen Marten: Why? Those who can afford to go without it are paying a lot more tax than you and I.

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 2:40 PM

    @marklars81: I agree but if they don’t need it … don’t take it and. Child allowance has nothing to do with paying taxes any baby born In Ireland parent gets it… and children who’s parent is Irish who have moved back here.

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    Mute marklars81
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    Jul 8th 2024, 10:30 AM

    Schools should be made pick colour of slacks/skirt and a colour of jumper/ polo shirt, all plain. Make uniforms actually affordable and let Pennys or Dunnes go for the market. Having to buy a crested jumper is just another way for a school to get more money from parents. Schools shouldn’t need to do this.

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 11:08 AM

    @marklars81: no schools should be making us pay for crested but they are . And are advertising for certain school uniform shops to buy them from but there are some options to go cheaper like getting crests done yourself or schools could go with iron on crests either but still.at and of day. Dunnes is not cheap when you have to buy polo’s shirts and the likes it still adds up .

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 1:02 PM

    @Karen Marten: should NOT

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    Mute marklars81
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    Jul 8th 2024, 1:54 PM

    @Karen Marten: Dunnes is cheap for school wear, you can get a pack of 3 polos from 5.50. Compare this to the school crested top and you’ll realise it is cheap.
    Can’t really tell if you were agreeing or disagreeing with me to be fair :/

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 3:13 PM

    @marklars81: dunes is NOT CHEAP and polo s shirts blouses skirts trousers track bottoms all go up in price depending on age. So I am disagreeing with you that they are not cheap

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    Mute Terence Smith
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    Jul 8th 2024, 11:45 AM

    So back to school allowance, paid meals in school, meals during summer holidays, Christmas bonus, is there anything these ‘parents’ actually get for their own children without relying on the state to raise their children?

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 12:28 PM

    @Terence Smith: the school meals is in ALL primary schools now. .

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    Mute liam mc meel
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    Jul 8th 2024, 8:27 AM

    Happy days this is wonderful news

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    Mute Mark R
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    Jul 8th 2024, 9:58 AM

    I could never understand the qualifications for the Back to School allowance. I know of well qualified professionals working for large multinationals who get it. It is supposed to be biased on household income, yet the only way they would qualify is if the main breadwinners earnings are left out of the application…

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 10:03 AM

    @Mark R: I have heard from parents who applied but was over the means by €50 combined. Two parent working families struggling to get by with the costs of uniforms getting so expensive and schools making wear crested this and only black shoes and that’s just primary schools .

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    Mute Gearoid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 8th 2024, 12:26 PM

    @Mark R: I can tell you with 100% certainty that no one who is in a well paid job is getting it unless they’re lying in their application, and if they are they will be found out because Revenue and the DSP share info.

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 12:37 PM

    @Gearoid MacEachaidh: yes I thought that too if a 2 parent working family struggling can’t get it earning too much ,but then again. There are some people who can work the system. Like the child allowance when not I’m the the country most of the year

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    Mute Gearoid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 8th 2024, 12:53 PM

    @Karen Marten: the only way for these people to “work the system” would be to lie. There was a time where different government departments didn’t talk to each other but those days are gone. Only way to scam is to be getting paid under the table. But if you’re working for a multinational and claiming benefits you’re not entitled to you’ll be caught, and almost certainly wouldn’t get them to begin with since bank statements are required as part of the application

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    Mute john kenny
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    Jul 8th 2024, 8:35 AM

    Good news story.

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    Mute Sun Rise
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    Jul 8th 2024, 10:51 AM

    Stunned that a comment is mocking this payment as a means of garnering votes. I assume that if an alternative government is elected they expect the new government to remove all benefits to everybody. Some people are just ignorant in their need to protest against everything.

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    Mute Karen Marten
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    Jul 8th 2024, 11:10 AM

    @Sun Rise: there are genuine hard working families who are over the means to get this payment and there are those who will always get it and not spend it on the uniforms let’s not sugar coat it !

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