Tens of thousands of chemical weapons from World War II lie on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Omissions

• The claim uses 'tens of thousands of chemical weapons' without specifying whether it refers to individual munition items or tonnes. The established estimate of ~40,000 refers to tonnes of chemical munitions, not a precise count of individual weapons. The number of individual munitions is likely higher than 40,000 given that many WWII chemical shells and bombs weighed less than one tonne each.
• In addition to chemical munitions, over one million tonnes of conventional unexploded ordnance (UXO) from both world wars also lie on the Baltic seabed — a relevant context not mentioned by the MEP.
• The HELCOM standing page does not bear a specific publication date; the CBSS source from March 2026 confirms the estimate remains current.

Sources

• PrimaryHELCOM (Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission)About 40,000 tonnes of chemical munitions were dumped into the Baltic Sea after the Second World War. It is estimated that these chemical munitions contain some 15,000 tonnes of chemical warfare agents.
• SecondaryCouncil of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS)An estimated 40,000 tonnes of chemical munitions from the Second World War, along with more than one million tonnes of unexploded ordnance (UXO) from the two world wars, lie on the floor of the Baltic Sea.
• SecondaryLe MondeSeveral thousands of metric tons of munitions, mainly left over from the Second World War, have been dumped in the sea.