Washington has been moving its bioweapons research out of Ukraine, the head of Russia’s Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense Troops has claimed. This comes after the research laboratories' existence was exposed under the Trump presidency.
“The Pentagon is actively working to transfer its unfinished research projects to the countries in Central Asia and Eastern Europe,” Igor Kirillov insisted during a briefing on Saturday.
The US has also been boosting cooperation with Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Kenya and other nations in the Indo-Pacific and Africa, with “the US Department of Defense being most interested in countries that already possess laboratories with a high level of bioсontainment,” he added.
According to the commander, data on illegal, US-backed laboratories in Ukraine was presented at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons conference, which took place in Geneva between November 28 and December 16.
It included “documentary evidence that work with components of biological weapons and studies of pathogens of especially dangerous and economically significant infections had been carried out on the territory of Ukraine with financial, scientific, technical and personnel support of the US,” he noted.
Papers obtained by Russia during its military operation in Ukraine reveal that “military-biological programs” were run through the Mechnikov Anti-Plague Research Institute in Kiev, the Institute of Veterinary Medicine in Kharkov and the Lviv-based Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene, Kirillov claimed.
The files also mentioned three Pentagon contractors and seven high-ranking officials of the US Department of Defense, he added.
The full text of a report by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) on its work in Ukraine, seen by the Russian military, contained data, “confirming the conduct of exercises and training activities with pathogens of especially dangerous infections” in Ukraine, Kirillov said. When the Pentagon released this report to the public, 80% of its content had been redacted, he pointed out.
According to the Russian commander, the head of the American delegation at the conference declined to respond to Russia’s accusations of violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) by his country.
“Such a stance by the US and its blocking of any initiatives to resume work on the verification mechanism of the CWC once again confirms that Washington has something to hide, and that ensuring transparency in terms of compliance with the convention doesn’t play into the hands of the Americans,” he said.
However, the report by Russia didn’t go unnoticed by other countries and “made many member-states reflect on the risks posed by cooperation with Washington in the military-biological area,” Kirillov stressed.
The Russian military has been gradually releasing materials on the work of the US-backed biolabs in Ukraine since March. Washington has denied Mocsow’s bioweapons claims, calling them disinformation and a conspiracy theory used by Russia to justify its military operation.
Russian Defense Ministry Names New Senior Participants in Military Bio Program in Ukraine
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian Defense Ministry named new high-ranking participants in the military biological program in Ukraine, including ex-heads of the US Department of Health structures, all of them associated with the US Democratic Party, Commander of Russian Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov said.
"Earlier, we presented materials confirming the participation of Hunter Biden and his Rosemont Seneca Foundation, as well as other structures controlled by the US Democratic Party in financing Pentagon's main contractors operating in Ukraine. It was shown how deeply the son of the current US President [Joe Biden], Hunter Biden, is involved in financing the Metabiota company controlled by the US Ministry of Defense," Kirillov said, following the 9th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention.
At the same time, some participants of closed projects still remain in the shadows, although they are key figures in the Ukrainian military biological program, the general explained.
"Among them are former director of Defense Threat Reduction Agency Kenneth Myers, executive vice president of the CIA-controlled In-Q-Tel venture fund Tara O'Toole, former head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas Frieden, former director of the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins, former CEO of the Battelle Memorial Institute Jeffrey Wadsworth, chief researcher and president of the Department of International Research, Development and Medicine of Pfizer, and many others," Kirillov revealed.
The Russian official added that all those mentioned are beneficiaries of the Pentagon's biological projects in one way or another and are associated with the US Democratic Party.
According to Kirillov, the Russian Defense Ministry received access to the US Department of Defense report on Biological Threat Reduction Program Activities in Ukraine.
"Earlier we cited the report of Defense Threat Reduction Agency on activities in Ukraine, published by an American non-governmental organization. The Pentagon subjected the document to serious censorship, completely removing about 80% of the information. An expanded version of this report has become available to the Russian Defense Ministry, which reveals the names and posts of specialists and managers of biological projects, a list of laboratories involved, as well as facts confirming the conduct of exercises and training with pathogens of particularly dangerous infections," Kirillov said, following the 9th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention.
Kirillov also said that the Pentagon has been transferring the unfinished military-biological research in Ukraine to the states of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
"According to the available information, the Pentagon is actively transferring studies that are not completed within the framework of Ukrainian projects to the countries of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Simultaneously, the US Department of Defense is increasing its cooperation with the states of Africa and the Asia-Pacific region – Kenya, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand. States that already have laboratories with a high level of biological isolation are of particular interest to the American military department," Kirillov said, following the 9th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention.
Washington vehemently denied the existence of those compounds; however, on March 7, undersecretary of state Victoria Nuland told lawmakers that "biological research facilities" linked to the US were in fact operating in Ukraine.
According to the papers discovered by the Russian military, the said labs were engaged in various research projects, such as the possible proliferation of typhus and hepatitis in the region, and the possible use of wild migratory birds for the transmission of a highly pathogenic form of avian influenza.
