The statement was made by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to reporters a short time ago during the ongoing NATO summit in Brussels. POTUS is in Brussels for the meeting.

Stoltenberg said that in response, the alliance had activated its chemical and nuclear "defense elements" to protect member states against any possible contamination fallout if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Stoltenberg said NATO member states are also going to send detection equipment and protection to Ukraine to help it deal with any such attacks.

"We are concerned partly because we see the rhetoric and we see that Russia is trying to create some kind of pretext accusing Ukraine, the United States, and NATO allies of preparing to use chemical and biological weapons."

"There is also a risk that it [a chemical-weapons attack] will have a direct effect on people living in NATO countries because we can see contamination, we can see the spread of chemical agents or biological weapons into our countries." 

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa added that while the Russian military might not use chemical weapons, an air strike or shelling of a chemical plant could be just as dangerous, triggering "a disaster of large scale."

As an example, on Monday of this week a Ukrainian chemical plant in Sumy was targeted by a Russian airstrike resulting in a deadly ammonia leak.