Russia claims Ukraine destroying evidence of US-funded bioweapons program.
RT.com
6 Mar, 2022 17:54
As Russian troops entered Ukraine, the government in Kiev ordered the “emergency destruction” of pathogens including plague and anthrax at US-funded laboratories near the Russian border, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow claimed on Sunday. Earlier rumors that the Russian military was targeting US-run biolabs were written off as conspiracy theories, but the ministry has promised to back up its claims with documents.
“We have received documentation from employees of Ukrainian biolaboratories on the emergency destruction on February 24 of especially dangerous pathogens of plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases,” read a statement from the ministry.
The statement accused the “Kiev regime” of conducting an “emergency cleansing” to hide evidence of the supposed biological weapons program, which the ministry claimed was funded by the US, and involved the production of “biological weapons components” at at least two laboratories in the cities of Poltava and Kharkov, both of which have seen intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in recent days.
The documents published by the ministry purportedly include an order from the Ukrainian Ministry of Health to destroy the pathogens, and lists of the germs in question.
RT can not independently verify the authenticity of these documents. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that they are currently being analyzed by radiation, chemical and biological protection specialists.
“In the near future we will present the results of the analysis,” the ministry said, adding that it believes the documents will prove that Ukraine and the US were violating Article 1 of the UN Biological Weapons Convention. The US, Ukraine and Russia are among more than 180 parties to this treaty, and under Article 1 of the agreement, all parties agree “never under any circumstances to develop, produce, stockpile, acquire, or retain” biological weapons.
As of the moment of this article’s publication, Washington has not commented on the ministry’s claims, and neither has Kiev.
In the initial days of Russia’s military offensive last month,
claims circulated online that Russia was targeting western-funded biolabs with missile strikes. These allegations were never verified and were derided by western sources as
conspiracy theories, although the Pentagon has publicly stated that it works with the Ukrainian government to “consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern in Ukrainian government facilities,” for “peaceful research and vaccine development,”
according to the US embassy in Kiev.
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Russia makes new claims on US-financed biolabs in Ukraine.
RT.com
7 Mar, 2022 18:33
The Ukrainian authorities have been urgently destroying pathogens studied at its laboratories linked to the US Department of Defense, the Russian military claimed on Monday, adding that such activities hint at the military purposes of these studies.
As many as 30 biological laboratories have been established in Ukraine that are actively cooperating with the US military, the commander of the Russian radiological, chemical and biological defense force, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, said at a news briefing on Monday.
The list of these laboratories’ partners includes the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) – the largest biomedical research facility administered by the US military; the general added.
Many of these laboratories have been active since the 2014 coup d’état in Ukraine and their emergence in the country has coincided with a spike in infectious diseases in the region, including German measles, diphtheria and tuberculosis, the Russian military said.
After the Russian forces launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, these laboratories started hastily destroying the materials they had been working on, including the highly pathogenic bacterial and viral agents, Kirillov has said, adding that Moscow has obtained documents related to that process.
Analysis of the documents shows that the laboratories had been working with dangerous infections such as anthrax and the plague. “Assortment and the excessive quantity of the biological agents suggest that the work done in these laboratories had been part of some military biological programs,” the general has said, adding that just one such laboratory in the western Ukrainian city of Lvov had destroyed as many as 320 containers with pathogens causing plague, swamp fever and Malta fever among others.
“If these collections fall into the hands of the Russian experts, they will highly likely prove Ukraine and the US have been in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention,” Kirillov has said, adding that “this is the only reason that can explain the hasty destruction” of those materials.
The general has also expressed his concerns that all the biological materials needed for the alleged military biological program to continue had been already transported to the US.
Kiev has denied developing bioweapons, and Washington has not commented on the Russian military statements so far.
Moscow has been raising alarm about the activities of the US-financed biological laboratories located in the former Soviet states for quite some time. Earlier, it pointed to the Lugar Research Center – a US-funded laboratory in Georgia – as a place where some dangerous experiments are being conducted.
The Pentagon brushed off such accusations as a “Russian disinformation campaign” at that time.
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Briefing by the Chief of Russian NBC Protection troops.
Минобороны России
Mar 7, 2022
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation has repeatedly drawn attention to the biological programmes implemented by the Pentagon in the post-Soviet area.
Including the territory of Ukraine that has united a chain of more than 30 biological laboratories divided into those for scientific research and for sanitary-epidemiological investigations.
Those works have been ordered by the Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). A firm affiliated to the defence department (Black and Veatch above all others) are involved in the implementation of the projects.
The works refer to three main branches. In the first place, it refers to the biological situation observation in the areas of possible deployment of the NATO military contingents, according to the Pentagon. In the second place, it is dedicated to collecting and transporting the strains of dangerous microorganisms. The third branch of activity refers to scientific investigations on potential biological weapons agents that are specific for that region, possessing natural focuses and able to be transmitted to humans.
For example, since 2021, the Pentagon has been carrying out the project called 'Diagnosis, observation and prevention of zoonotic diseases in the Armed Forces of Ukraine' funded with 11.8 million dollars.
In 2020-2021, the German Ministry of Defence examined the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis, meningitis, hantaviruses causative agents within the Ukrainian-German initiative for biological security on the external borders of the European Union.
Under the pretext of testing agents for the treatment and prevention of the coronavirus infection, a few thousand of serum samples taken from the infected individuals that refer to the Slavic ethnicity have been transported from Ukraine to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
At the same time, the activity of the biological laboratories that, according to our data, has been intensified since 2014 and the so-called Ukrainian healthcare system 'reforming' programme implemented by the United States have led to an unmanageable increase of hazardous and economically important infections morbidity.
Thus there has been noted an increase of rubella, diphtheria and tuberculosis cases in Ukraine. The incidence of measles has increased more than 100 times. The World Health Organization has declared Ukraine a country with a high risk of the poliomyelitis outbreak.
We are considered that in the year of 2007 a strain of African swine fever with high contagiousness was constructed in the Georgian biological laboratory which is subordinate to Pentagon. It`s spread caused significant economic damage to a number of states including Ukraine and Poland and excluded them from a number of pork exporters.
The Department of the Chief of the Russian troops NBC protection constantly analyzes the biological situation on the territory of Ukraine.
According to our data an emergency phasing out of the biological programmes takes place. The analysed documents confirm that Ukrainian Health Ministry has set a task to completely destroy the bio-agents in the laboratories since 24th of February.
At the same time the analysis of the instructions given to the laboratory officials indicates that liquidation procedure is aimed at the irrevocable destruction of the collections. Apparently, everything necessary for continuation of the implementation of the military biological program has already been taken out of Ukraine.
The analysis of the acts of destruction shows that work was carried out with pathogenes of plague, anthrax and brucellosis in the Lviv biological laboratory, pathogens of diphtheria, salmonellosis and dysentery in laboratories in Kharkov and Poltava. Here are some of them: only in Lviv 232 containers with the casuative agent of leptospirosis, 30 containers with tularemia, 10 with containers brucellosis, 5 containers with plague were destroyed. In total more than 320 containers. The nomenclature and excessive number of bio-pathogens indicate that the work was carried out within the framework of military biological programs.
The curators from the Pentagon understand that if these collections get to Russian experts a fact of violation of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons by Ukraine and the USA will most likely be confirmed. Namely: carrying out work to enhance the pathogenic properties of microorganisms with usage of synthetic biology methods.
Only this can explain a haste with which the liquidation was carried out.
This is only a small part of documents. We continue the work and will inform you.
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China urges Pentagon to open up about ‘biolabs’ in Ukraine.
RT.com
8 Mar, 2022 11:33
China’s foreign ministry has called on the US to disclose information on the Pentagon’s alleged biological laboratories in Ukraine “as soon as possible”.
On Monday, the Russian military said Ukrainian authorities had been destroying pathogens studied at its laboratories. Moscow claimed that 30 US-financed Ukrainian biolabs have been actively cooperating with the American military.
Kiev has denied developing bioweapons. According to the website of the US embassy in Kiev, the US Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program only “collaborates with partner countries to counter the threat of outbreaks” of infectious diseases. In 2020, the embassy called such theories about US-funded biolabs in Ukraine "disinformation."
Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, however, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian claimed that, according to his country’s information, the laboratories in Ukraine are just “a tip of an iceberg” and that the US Department of Defense “controls 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world.” This is done under the pretext of “cooperating to reduce biosecurity risks” and “strengthening global public health,” Zhao said.
It is the first time that Beijing has disclosed the alleged figure. Zhao said that according to data “released by the United States itself,” there are 26 US laboratories in Ukraine. In light of Russia’s military offensive in the country, he urged “all parties concerned” to ensure the safety of the labs.
“In particular, the United States, as the party which knows these laboratories best, should publish the relevant details as soon as possible, including which viruses are stored and which research has been carried out,” he said.
He claimed the US “has been exclusively obstructing” the establishment of an independent verification mechanism. Such behavior, Zhao said, “further aggravates the concerns of the international community.”
According to a
report in The Rio Times, the US embassy in Ukraine deleted all information about Pentagon-financed bio-labs in the country from its website on February 26. However, journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva claimed embassy staff forgot to remove a document showing that the Pentagon is funding two new biolabs in Kiev and Odessa.
“Ukraine has no control over the military biolabs. The Ukrainian government is not allowed to release sensitive information about the program,” the Brazilian news outlet claimed.
Over the past 20 years, the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine, jointly established with the United States, invested over $285 million in about 1,850 projects carried out by scientists who, according to Gaytandzhieva, previously worked on the development of weapons of mass destruction.
US authorities are yet to comment on the latest claims.
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US comments on Ukrainian ‘biolabs’
RT.com
8 Mar, 2022 22:41
US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has confirmed that Washington has been involved in an effort to make sure no “materials” Ukraine keeps in its biolabs end up with the Russian military.
“Ukraine has biological research facilities, which, in fact, we are now quite concerned… Russian troops, Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of,” Nuland said on Tuesday as she testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“We’re working with Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach,” she added.
The Russian military previously claimed that the Ukrainian authorities have been hastily destroying dangerous materials, including highly pathogenic bacterial and viral agents they allegedly kept in laboratories linked to the Pentagon.
On Monday, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said the documents seen by the Russian military suggest that some of these laboratories worked with anthrax, among other things. Kirillov also claimed that the only reason Kiev reportedly moved to destroy the materials was out of concern that Russian experts “will highly likely prove Ukraine and the US have been in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention,” once they study the samples.
While Moscow has expressed concern over the alleged development of bioweapons in Ukraine, Nuland appeared to preemptively blame Russia for any potential release of hazardous materials amid the ongoing military conflict.
Nuland agreed with Senator Marco Rubio that if a chemical or biological “incident” or “attack” takes place in Ukraine, then Russia would be the culprit.
“There is no doubt in my mind, senator, and it is a classic Russian technique to blame on the other guy what they’re planning to do themselves,” she said.
Kiev has denied it was designing bioweapons. The Pentagon said speculation about its involvement in these programs in former Soviet states is ‘Russian disinformation’.
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Moscow calls for strengthening bioweapons treaty.
RT.com
9 Mar, 2022 09:59
An international treaty banning bioweapons needs to be strengthened with a compliance verification mechanism, contrary to the US position on the issue, Moscow said on Wednesday. The call comes in the wake of the reported discovery of evidence that there were lethal pathogens at Pentagon-backed labs in Ukraine.
The Russian military reported this week that Ukrainian authorities had ordered the destruction of highly pathogenic samples that were stored at US-backed biological labs throughout the country.
The purported documents indicate that both Ukraine and the US breached the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), which both nations signed and ratified, the Russian foreign ministry alleged on Wednesday. The order to destroy the samples was an attempt to cover up the violations of the treaty, it said.
“We stand for the resumption of the work on a legally binding Protocol to the Convention for an effective verification mechanism, which the US has been stonewalling since 2001,” the ministry said.
The BWC, which came into force in 1975, bans the development, stockpiling and use of biological and toxin weapons. Unlike its counterpart for chemical weapons, the Convention for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the treaty lacks an international watchdog organization to verify compliance.
An attempt to establish such an organization took place in the 1990s. The VEREX ad hoc committee spent a decade formulating proposals for surveillance, inspections, information sharing and other confidence-building measures.
The effort ultimately failed due to objections from the George W Bush administration which, in 2001, rejected a 210-page draft protocol. Washington claimed that it would not have improved the BWC, if implemented, and would have hurt US national security and commercial interests.
John Bolton, then-Undersecretary of State, said at the time that Washington was focusing its anti-germ warfare interest on Iraq. The existence of Saddam Hussein’s bioweapons project was “beyond dispute,” he
claimed at the time. Two years later the US invaded Iraq under the pretext that it needed to destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which was later proven to be false.
Russia has been voicing concerns for years over US military-funded labs hosted by some nations in its proximity, most notably Georgia. Moscow believes that Washington is conducting military research there that may pose a threat to Russia. The foreign ministry statement said activities held on foreign soil should be subjected to reporting under the BWC, just like domestic programs.
The proposed measures “would allow subjecting military-biological activities of the US and its allies … to international control and ensure full verifiable compliance with the BWC by member states,” Moscow said.
Following Russia’s claims about labs in Ukraine, China called on the Pentagon to publicly comment on bio research conducted in foreign nations with its funding. Beijing claimed the US military controlled “336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world.”
The US denies that anything nefarious is being done in the labs, claiming they are used to monitor possible emerging infection threats around the world. US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland confirmed on Tuesday that her country was involved in Ukraine’s effort to destroy research materials so that Russia would not seize them.
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Russia urges US to clarify its activity in biolaboratories in Ukraine.
RT
Mar 9, 2022
Russia Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, demands the US explain its operations in Ukraine biolaboratories.
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US-funded labs in Ukraine dealt with bat coronavirus, Moscow claims.
RT.com
10 Mar, 2022 12:58
US-funded laboratories in Ukraine captured by Russian forces last week were conducting experiments with bat coronavirus and other dangerous pathogens, Moscow claimed on Thursday, citing documents seized at the facilities. There were allegedly plans to move on to African swine fever virus and to anthrax.
Igor Konashenkov, spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Defense, said that “experiments with samples of bat coronavirus were being carried out in the bio-laboratories, created and funded [by the US] in Ukraine, as documents show.” The Russian official went on to claim that in 2022 the US was intending to “work on bird, bat and reptile pathogens,” with plans to move on to research into whether those animals can “transmit African swine fever virus and anthrax.”
According to Konashenkov, the scientists were looking into, among other things, the possibility of pathogen transmission by wild birds migrating between Russia, Ukraine and other neighboring countries.
On Sunday, Russia announced that it had captured several laboratories in Ukraine. If Moscow officials are to be believed, staff at some of the facilities told Russian troops that particularly dangerous pathogens, including plague and anthrax, had been destroyed following the start of Moscow’s military offensive against Ukraine on February 24.
Konashenkov surmised that the Pentagon feared that its “secret biological experiments” would be uncovered, ordering Ukrainian authorities to dispose of evidence pointing to such research.
Responding to the allegations voiced by Russia on Wednesday, Ned Price, spokesperson for the US Department of State, accused Moscow of “intentionally spreading outright lies.” According to Price, similar claims made previously by Russia “have been debunked conclusively and repeatedly over many years.” The US official proceeded to suggest that the latest pathogen allegations were nothing more than a pretext invented by the Kremlin “in an attempt to justify its own horrific actions in Ukraine.”
Washington insisted that the “United States does not own or operate any chemical or biological laboratories in Ukraine, it is in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention.” The US Department of State pointed the finger at Moscow instead, accusing it of having “active chemical and biological weapons programs.”
Ukraine, too, has denied the presence of any facilities developing biological weapons on its territory.
The American embassy in Kiev confirmed that the US Department of Defense “collaborates with partner countries,” but only to “counter the threat of outbreaks.”
China, however, has made it clear that it is not entirely convinced by America’s explanations, and urged Washington to disclose relevant data “as soon as possible.”
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, its Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that Beijing had information indicating that the said laboratories in Ukraine were just the “tip of an iceberg.” Zhao went on to claim that the Pentagon “controls 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world,” with the secret program operating under the guise of efforts to “reduce biosecurity risks” and to strengthen “global public health.”
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US using Ukrainian territory to experiment on pathogens - Lavrov on bio-lab revelations.
RT
Mar 10, 2022
Lavrov comments on recent revelations about Washington operating biological laboratories in Ukraine, and EU claims it hadn't been informed of this – which, according to the Russian FM, comes as 'no surprise'
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Do Ukrainian biolabs violate the ban on biological weapons programs?
Scott Ritter, RT
10 Mar, 2022 14:48
Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of 'SCORPION KING: America's Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump.' He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector.
Unless either Ukraine or the US can prove otherwise, the available evidence points to Kiev operating biological laboratories which may have violated the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention.
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on March 8,
testifying on the US and international response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. After delivering her opening remarks, the veteran US diplomat took questions from the committee members. One question, asked by Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from the state of Florida, stood out. “Does Ukraine have chemical or biological weapons?” he asked.
Nuland
answered the question very deliberately. “Ukraine has biological research facilities which, in fact, we’re now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of, so we are working with the Ukrainians on how we can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach,” she said.
Of note was the fact that none of this was mentioned in the entirety of her opening speech. The purpose of Rubio’s question wasn’t to pin Nuland into a corner, but rather set up the follow-on question, designed to deflect a very discomforting issue into a propaganda opportunity for the US government.
“I’m sure you’re aware,” Rubio said, “that the Russian propaganda groups are already putting out there all kinds of information about how they have uncovered a plot by the Ukrainians to unleash biological weapons in the country, and with NATO’s coordination.” The senator paused before asking his question. “If there is a biological or chemical weapon incident or attack inside Ukraine, is there any doubt in your mind that 100% it would be the Russians behind it?”
Nuland answered this question with more authority: “There is no doubt in my mind, Senator. And, in fact, it is a classic Russian technique to blame the other guy for what they are planning to do themselves.”
Rubio was right about one thing – the Russians were having a field day about the “biological research facilities” Nuland was so reticent about discussing. Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
announced that “We [Russia] confirm that, during the special military operation in Ukraine, the Kiev regime was found to have been concealing traces of a military biological program implemented with funding from the United States Department of Defense.”
According to Zakharova, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, on February 24 – the first day of the Russian offensive – had ordered all the Ukrainian biological laboratories to “urgently” eradicate the stored reserves of “highly hazardous pathogens of plague, anthrax, rabbit fever, cholera and other lethal diseases.” She said the documentation on the “urgent eradication” of the pathogens was “received from employees of Ukrainian laboratories.”
While noting that more work was being done by the Russian Ministry of Defense to fully assess the documents in question, Zakharova said Russia was able to conclude “that components of biological weapons were being developed in Ukrainian laboratories in direct proximity to Russian territory.”
“The urgent eradication of highly hazardous pathogens on February 24 was ordered to prevent exposing a violation of Article I of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) by Ukraine and the United States,” she added.
Article I of the BTWC states that “Each State Party to this Convention undertakes never in any circumstances to develop, produce, stockpile, or otherwise acquire or retain:
1. microbial or other biological agents, or toxins whatever their origin or method of production, of types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes;
2. weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict."
Earlier, the US Embassy in Kiev
published information relating to what it described as a “Biological Threat Reduction Program,” a collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the Ukrainian government. According to this data, “The [biological threat reduction] program accomplishes its bio-threat reduction mission through development of a bio-risk management culture; international research partnerships; and partner capacity for enhanced bio-security, bio-safety, and bio-surveillance measures.” According to the US Embassy, “the Biological Threat Reduction Program’s priorities in Ukraine are to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern and to continue to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats.”
This all sounds innocuous enough and, if true, seems to meet the criterion set forth in Article 1 of the BTWC regarding “prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes.”
There is suspicion, however, that the Defense Threat Reduction Agency-led biological programs may have a more nefarious purpose. The Bulgarian investigative journalist, Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, has conducted extensive research into this issue. “The US Army regularly produces deadly viruses, bacteria and toxins in direct violation of the UN Convention on the prohibition of Biological Weapons. Hundreds of thousands of unwitting people are systematically exposed to dangerous pathogens and other incurable diseases. Bio-warfare scientists using diplomatic cover test man-made viruses at Pentagon bio laboratories in 25 countries across the world,” she
claimed.
Gaytandzhieva’s work has been dismissed by the US as ‘pro-Russian propaganda.’ But the inescapable fact is that the US does not have a clean record when it comes to compliance with the BTWC. So-called “bio-defense” has been used by the US to circumvent, if not outright violate, the provisions of the BTWC in the past. The most flagrant example of this was the
CIA-led “Project Clear Vision,” which from 1997 until 2000 sought to reverse-engineer and subsequently test a Soviet-era “bomblet” designed to disperse biological agents, including anthrax. There was a debate within the Clinton administration as to whether “Clear Vision” violated the BTWC, which led to the program being halted in 2000.
There is no need to worry about any such malfeasance at the US-linked biolabs in Ukraine, however, the director of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, Robert Pope,
recently told reporters. “What we have today… are small amounts of various pathogens that by and large are things that are collected out of their environment that they need for research to be able to legitimately surveil disease and develop vaccines against.”
According to Pope, the Ukrainians had “more pathogens in more places than we recommend,” adding that his organization had been helping Ukrainian researchers organize their frozen pathogen collections with an eye on preserving genetic information via sequencing before destroying the live samples. “All of that, obviously, has been derailed here with the recent events,” he said.
Pope’s biggest concern was that if these biolabs lost electrical power for any extended time, then the frozen samples would thaw out. “If the ventilation system is damaged, or the building itself is damaged, and these now ambient-temperature pathogens are able to escape the facility, then they can be potentially infectious in the region around the facility,” he said.
He expressed hope that the facilities would not be deliberately attacked. “I think the Russians know enough about the kinds of pathogens that are stored in biological research laboratories that I don’t think they would deliberately target a laboratory. But what I do have concerns about is that they would… be accidentally damaged during this Russian invasion.”
While Pope had been painting a relatively benign picture of the types of pathogens stored at the facilities he supervised, he left a clue about the potential for something far more worrisome. While noting that many of the biolabs in Ukraine were of new construction, “others date back to the Soviet-era and the country’s bioweapons program.” Some of these older laboratories, Pope said, could hold pathogen strains dating back to the Soviet biowarfare programs. “Scientists being scientists, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of these strain collections in some of these laboratories still have pathogen strains that go all the way back to the origins of that program.”
If this is the case, then the Ukrainian labs could very well be the repository of
Anthrax 836, an extremely deadly strain of that disease specifically developed to be delivered in warheads mounted on SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles
operating from Ukraine.
This, it would seem, would put the US-linked labs in direct violation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, which prohibits the acquisition or retention of pathogens “that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes.”
Anthrax 836, and other similar Soviet-era biological weapons, no longer exist. As such, there is no need to conduct research designed to defend from any potential exposure to such agents. The only possible explanation for retention of Soviet-era biological warfare pathogens would be to keep them for some future biological warfare program, or as a source for covert operations seeking to falsely link a target nation, such as Russia, to illegal activity.
If Marco Rubio had been doing his job, instead of promoting anti-Russian propaganda, he could have – indeed, should have – held Victoria Nuland’s feet to the fire regarding what was really going on at the biological labs in Ukraine. There might be an innocuous answer out there. But until it is provided, it appears that Russia did in Ukraine what the US was unable to in Iraq – launched an attack on a nation which was in possession of prohibited biological weapons.
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The results of documents' analysis about military biological activities of the USA in Ukraine.
Минобороны России
Mar 10, 2022
Original documents and translations
disk.yandex.ru/d/62hsNB8kC7MXPQ--------------
Tucker: Why are we funding this?
Fox News
Premiered 16 hours ago
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Tulsi Gabbard: Labs need to be 'shut down immediately'
Fox News
Mar 10, 2022
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Top US spies explain Ukrainian ‘biolabs’
RT.com
10 Mar, 2022 22:35
The heads of US intelligence agencies rejected allegations of bioweapons research and development taking place in Ukraine with Washington’s during Senate hearings on Thursday.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Ukraine “operates a little over a dozen,” admitting that the US has “provided assistance” to the facilities at least in the past. Said “assistance” came only “in the context of biosafety”, she claimed, adding that it was “something we have done with a variety of different countries.”
“We do not assess that Ukraine is pursuing either biological weapons or nuclear weapons,” Haines said, dismissing the new allegations as “consistent with long-standing Russian efforts to accuse the United States of sponsoring bioweapons” and a “classic move by the Russians.”
A similar statement was produced during the hearings by the CIA Director and a former US ambassador to Moscow William Burns. The CIA boss flatly accused Russia of possessing biological and chemical weaponry itself, suggesting the new allegations came as a prelude for a “false-flag operations” with the illicit weaponry.
“Unlike Russia, which does have chemical and weapons and has used them, and does do biological weapons research and has for years, Ukraine has neither,” he claimed, adding that Russian “propaganda” gave the American spies “pretty serious concerns.”
The allegations of US-sponsored bioweapons research taking place in secretive laboratories scattered across Ukraine were raised Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state. Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
On Monday, the commander of the Russian radiological, chemical and biological defense force, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said the secretive Ukrainian laboratories started hastily destroying the documents and materials they had been working on amid the offensive, including highly pathogenic bacterial and viral agents. Still, Moscow was able to obtain some documents related to the covert research, he claimed.
The official further elaborated on the matter on Thursday, alleging that the US has been directly involved in the research. The laboratories located in Kiev, Odessa and Kharkov have been allegedly working on a project dubbed UP-4, that explored prospects of using migratory birds for spreading pathogens, including the highly contagious H5N1 virus, Kirillov claimed. Some 145 species of birds were studied under the project, with two of them receiving special attention as their routes lay primarily over Russia’s territory.
Over the past few days, multiple top US officials commented on Moscow’s allegations, producing varying degrees of denial. US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, for instance, confirmed that Washington has been involved in efforts to ensure that no “materials” from the biolabs fall into Russia’s hands.
She did not elaborate, however, on the nature of the “biological research facilities” or the degree of the US involvement in their work. Others, including US State Department spokesperson Ned Price and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki opted for flat denial. The latter also accused Moscow of setting the stage for a potential “false flag” attack, adding that “we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine or to create a false flag operation using them.”
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Russia asks for UN Security Council meeting over Ukraine’s ‘biolabs’
RT.com
11 Mar, 2022 03:34
Russia has called for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss purported US-backed biological weapons programs in Ukraine. Washington has denied that it owns or operates any such biolabs in the country, while Kiev insisted that the facilities were engaged only in civilian research.
Moscow’s deputy UN envoy Dmitry Polyanskiy announced the move early on Friday, saying the mission had requested a Security Council summit for March 11, while citing a Defense Ministry briefing claiming that the United States and NATO allies ran “military biological programs” in Ukraine.
The
military briefing went on to claim that the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency is “financing and conducting military biological research on the territory of Ukraine,” citing documents it said it captured at several facilities during Russia’s ongoing attack on the country. Among other activities, the ministry said research was carried out at laboratories in Kiev, Kharkov and Odessa to “study the possibility of the spread of particularly dangerous infections through migrating birds.”
Washington, however, has rejected those charges, with State Department spokesperson Ned Price telling reporters on Wednesday that the US is “in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention, and it does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere.”
Instead, Price argued it was Russia that has been operating “active chemical and biological weapons programs,” though he did not elaborate or provide evidence for the counter-accusation.
Other US officials have offered varying responses to Russia’s claims. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, for example,
told lawmakers on Tuesday that Ukraine does, in fact, have “biological research facilities,” voicing concerns that “Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of” hazardous materials from those labs. She stopped short of confirming any American role at the facilities, however, and did not go into details about what kind of work had been done.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also weighed in on the issue, saying that any biolabs in his country have no military dimension and are “focused on civilian science.” He claimed that most of the facilities have been around since the Soviet era.
“Neither chemical weapons nor other weapons of mass destruction are being developed on our soil,” he said on Friday.
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WHO advised Kiev to destroy disease-causing pathogens – media.
RT.com
11 Mar, 2022 06:10
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reportedly told Kiev to dispose of dangerous research materials kept in laboratories around the country to prevent the pathogens from being leaked or “accidentally” released.
The UN agency revealed the details behind its recommendation to Ukraine in statements to
Reuters and Russia’s
TASS news agency on Friday.
“As part of this work, WHO has strongly recommended to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine and other responsible bodies to destroy high-threat pathogens to prevent any potential spills,” the UN agency stated, as quoted by Reuters. It specified neither the nature of materials that should be destroyed, nor the date when it gave the advice.
The agency only reportedly told Reuters that it had been working with Kiev for “several years” to make sure “accidental or deliberate release of pathogens” never happens.
The Russian military previously accused Washington of creating and funding a network of “biolabs” in Ukraine as part of an alleged bioweapons program. Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed on Thursday that documents it seized in Ukraine’s research facilities suggest that the US was planning to “work on bird, bat and reptile pathogens,” and potentially study whether these animals could transmit such dangerous diseases as an African swine fever virus and anthrax.
On Friday, Moscow called for the UN Security Council to convene to discuss alleged US-backed biological weapons programs in Ukraine.
The US and Ukranian governments have both vehemently denied the claims, insisting that no bioweapons program has ever existed in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesky stated on Friday that most of his country’s bio-research facilities were inherited from the Soviet times, and were “focused on civilian science.”
On Thursday, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines admitted that Washington had “provided assistance” to the labs, but insisted that it was strictly “in the context of biosafety.”
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Moscow rejects Washington’s chemical weapons comment.
RT.com
12 Mar, 2022 07:06
Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, accused Washington on Saturday of trying to “demonize” Moscow, rejecting as baseless the US State Department’s suggestion that it could use chemical weapons in Ukraine.
“The US official, as always, did not bother to provide any evidence. This is another attempt to demonize our country,” Antonov said, adding that such claims were “worth a penny.”
Citing a paper from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the official then suggested that Ukrainian “radical groups” – allegedly “prepared under the control of the representatives of American special services” – could have themselves “prepared several potential scenarios of the use of toxic chemicals in order to carry out various types of provocations.”
“Our country, unlike the United States, eliminated all available stocks of chemical warfare agents in 2017. This fact has been documented by the OPCW. It is pointless to argue with this fact,” Antonov concluded, in reference to the fact that US chemical warfare stockpiles have yet to be completely
decommissioned.
The Russian government has
claimed that Ukrainian groups backed by the US could be preparing a false flag chemical attack in order to “accuse Russia of the use of chemical weapons against the civil population and violating its obligations.” The US and Ukraine have denied such claims.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price
suggested on Wednesday that Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine.
“Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very crimes that Russia itself is perpetrating,” he said, calling Moscow’s warnings “an obvious ploy.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed this week that Russia could “use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine” or “create a false-flag operation” with such weapons. Psaki added that the world should “be on the lookout.”
Psaki dismissed Moscow’s suggestions that the US and Ukraine could conduct a similar false-flag attack, calling them “false claims” and “conspiracy theories.”
The press secretary argued that Moscow’s claims were an “obvious ploy” to justify further military action in Ukraine.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry claimed on March 6 that Russian forces had discovered evidence of Ukraine erasing traces of an alleged US-backed military biological program in the country. Washington has claimed it is working to prevent Russian forces from capturing biological research material.
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China resolutely opposes development and use of bio-chemical weapons.
CGTN
Mar 12, 2022
China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun said China resolutely opposed the development and use of bio-chemical weapons during a UN Security Council meeting on Friday, and urged countries with stocks of bio-chemical weapons to destroy them at an early date.
A UN spokesperson said there is "no information to confirm" that Ukraine has biological weapon labs after the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that it had received documentation from employees at Ukrainian biolabs, claiming they were in the process of destroying dangerous pathogens. The U.S. dismissed Russia's accusation as "laughable."
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Russia, U.S. accuse each other at UNSC over military biological research in Ukraine.
CGTN
Mar 12, 2022
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held an emergency meeting on Friday at the request of Russia to discuss military biological research that Russia claims was conducted by the U.S. in Ukraine. Russia presented a series of documents that show a network of biological laboratories within Ukraine and demanded a U.S. response. The U.S. accused Russia of using the UNSC to spread disinformation.
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Beijing wants US to ‘open biolabs’ to international experts.
RT.com
14 Mar, 2022 10:51
Washington should prove that the global network of biolabs funded by the Pentagon does not conduct nefarious research by subjecting the facilities to international scrutiny, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said during a daily briefing on Monday.
“If the US wants to prove their activity is benign, why not open those biolabs to independent examination by international experts?” he asked.
There are dozens of biolabs funded by the US through the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) scattered throughout the globe. The US insists they act as early warning outposts collecting data on potentially dangerous infections in various parts of the world.
Skeptical nations, including China and Russia, believe the labs may also serve darker purposes by conducting bioweapon studies on behalf of the US. The work is allegedly conducted on foreign soil for extra secrecy, and to circumvent Washington’s international commitments to refrain from this type of military research, critics claim.
The network was brought back into the spotlight this month amid Russia’s military attack against Ukraine. Moscow released documents allegedly proving that Washington ordered labs in Ukraine to destroy samples of highly dangerous pathogens and other materials. US officials offered an array of explanations in response.
US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland confirmed under oath that Washington gave instructions to Kiev to destroy lab materials, saying her government was concerned that the research could fall into Russia’s hands.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price rejected Russia’s suspicions that the US and Ukraine were violating the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), which bans bioweapons. He accused Russia of breaking the treaty itself by running active germ warfare research, without offering any evidence.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN Security Council meeting called by Russia on Friday that the US does not support bioweapons programs in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed on Wednesday that Russia may be preparing a “false flag” biological or chemical weapons attack in Ukraine to further escalate the armed conflict.
Zhao Lijian said that statements from US officials about biolabs have been “contradictory and confusing,” and the lack of clarity causes concern for Beijing. The US infamously opposed attempts in the 1990s to establish an international mechanism to verify compliance of individual nations with the BWC, he noted.
Meanwhile, the US has “for decades” been “pointing fingers at every turn, accusing other nations of failing to comply with their obligations [on non-development of weapons of mass destruction], demanding they accept verification missions and even imposing sanctions on them,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
He added that Washington has double standards regarding international inspections when it denies transparency for its own research. He said the US should come clean about what the hundreds of millions of dollars – which it reportedly poured into Ukrainian biolabs – was spent on.
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China welcomes inquiry into claims of U.S. biolabs in Ukraine.
CGTN
Mar 16, 2022
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The latest on the peace talks & a debate over alleged U.S. biolabs in Ukraine.
CGTN
Mar 17, 2022
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Russia presents new evidence from US-funded Ukraine biolabs.
RT.com
17 Mar, 2022 19:30
Moscow believes that laboratories in Ukraine funded by the US military were making biological weapons components, but that local staff was being kept in the dark about their research, a senior Russian general said on Thursday.
Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, who commands the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces of Russia, presented documents and imagery showing why the military has come to such a conclusion.
“We believe that components of biological weapons were being made on the territory of Ukraine,” said Kirillov.
He noted that the documents he was presenting “have the signatures of real officials and are certified by the seals of organizations,” for those journalists and experts in the West doubting their veracity.
One document, dated March 6, 2015 confirms the “direct participation of the Pentagon in the financing of military biological projects in Ukraine,” Kirillov said. The US officially funded the projects through the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, according to the Agreement on Joint Biological Activities. However, the evidence shows that the real recipients of some $32 million in funds were Ukrainian Defense Ministry laboratories in Kiev, Odessa, Lvov and Kharkov.
These facilities were chosen by the US Department of Defense’s Threat Reduction Administration (DTRA), and the contractor Black and Veatch, to carry out the U-P-8 project, aimed at studying the pathogens of Crimea-Congo hemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis, and hantaviruses, Kirillov said, pointing to a slide with the Pentagon’s request.
“From our point of view, the interest of US military biologists is due to the fact that these pathogens have natural foci both in Ukraine and in Russia, and their use can be disguised as natural disease outbreaks,” the general said.
According to the evidence, the labs isolated three bacterial pathogens (causing plague, brucellosis and leptospirosis) and six families of viruses, including coronaviruses, all of which were drug-resistant and spread rapidly from animals to humans. A number of documents confirmed the samples taken in Ukraine to other countries – Georgia, Germany, and the UK.
Kirillov showed official documents confirming the transfer of 5,000 samples of blood serum taken from Ukrainian citizens to the Pentagon-backed Richard Lugar center in Tbilisi, Georgia. Another 773 biological assays were transferred to the UK, while an agreement was signed for the transfer of “unlimited quantities” of infectious materials to the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Germany’s leading center for animal diseases.
However, the analysis of the obtained evidence suggests that Ukrainian specialists were not aware of the potential risks of transferring these materials, and may have been kept in the dark about the true goal of the ongoing research, Kirillov noted.
Documents from Project P-781, a study of ways of transmitting diseases to humans through bats, showed it was carried out by the Kharkov laboratory and the Lugar Center in Georgia, but Ukraine received most of the $1.6 million grant for the project. Kirillov said that “systematic” research in this area has been carried out since 2009, under the supervision of US specialists – referencing projects P-382, P-444 and P-568.
As one of the key people involved, Kirillov named the head of the DTRA office at the US Embassy in Kiev, Joanna Wintrol.
“Maybe she’s worth talking to, journalists?” he said.
Wintrol left Kiev in August 2020. In her
parting interview, she insisted no US scientists worked in Ukrainian biolabs and accused Russia of spreading “false information” about the program.
Kirillov pointed to mass outbreaks of avian flu in Russia and the EU in 2021, causing billions in damages, while the Kharkov Institute of Veterinary Medicine was studying wild birds as transmission vectors and assessing conditions under which the spread could cause economic damage and food insecurity. Evidence now shows the institute collected strains of avian flu capable of jumping species, Kirillov said, calling for an international investigation into the matter.
Some of the documents at the Kherson laboratory appear to be missing and may have been destroyed, Kirillov said, suggesting it was related to the 2018 outbreak of a mosquito-borne parasitic disease in that region, and a possible cover-up.
Four cases of dirofilariasis were detected in February that year, which is not typical for mosquito life cycles, the general said. Pentagon representatives visited the local hospitals in April, collecting medical records and getting briefed on the epidemiological investigation. However, “no documentary evidence regarding this outbreak has been found in the Kherson laboratory,” leading the Russian military to believe that “the urgency of destroying such documentary evidence is explained by the desire to prevent access to them by Russian specialists.”
There was also an outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis in 2018, among the citizens of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, with 70 cases detected around the village of Pesky – on the frontline with Ukrainian troops – alone.
“This may indicate a deliberate infection, or an accidental leakage of the pathogen from one of the biological laboratories located on the territory of Ukraine,” Kirillov said.
The Russian general brought up the long history of US conducting banned biological research in other countries, noting as an example that in 2010 Washington apologized for syphilis experiments in Guatemala.
“We will continue to examine the evidence and inform the global community about the illegal activities of the Pentagon and other US government agencies in Ukraine,” Kirillov said.
Materials relating to the military biological activities of the United States in Ukraine which were presented by Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov are seen on a screen during a briefing in Moscow, Russia. March 17, 2022 © Sputnik/Russian Defense Ministry--------------