The Russian Defence Ministry has obtained documents confirming that some 30 laboratories in Ukraine are engaged in strengthening the pathogenic properties of plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases using synthetic biology. Experts do not rule out that such dangerous experiments are intended to create biological weapons, and call on the Ukrainian specialists to take control over their activities
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, what has now been uncovered in Ukraine is only a small part of the worldwide network of US laboratories, which consists of more than 300 military biological centres.
“The very existence of such laboratories and their legalisation in the public consciousness is the main trouble. It is necessary to act decisively, in any case it is necessary to take such laboratories under control, and not only in Ukraine”, – says Mikhail Schelkanov, director of Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology named after G.P.Somov of Rospotrebnadzor, Doctor of Biological Sciences.
The states themselves said that the work in these laboratories, particularly in Ukraine, has nothing to do with the creation of bioweapons and is being done to detect and diagnose diseases such as COVID-19.
“But why then are these laboratories not in the public health or environmental agencies but in the US Department of Defence?” – wondered Alexander Kulichenko, director of the Stavropol Anti-Plague Research Institute, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, winner of the State Prize of the Russian Federation.
On March 17, 2022, it became known that a laboratory in Kharkiv was carrying out a secret project to study how bats transmit diseases to humans. According to documents obtained by Russian specialists of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces, this research had been carried out on a systematic basis and under the control of US specialists for many years.
“As part of the US project, the Kharkov Institute of Veterinary Medicine assessed conditions under which transmission processes could become unmanageable, cause economic damage and create food security risks”, – explained Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.
The US argument that the laboratories are engaged in improving health and the environment on a particular territory can be considered untenable, because in such a case, the specialists would not work with pathogens of especially dangerous infections, in particular plague.
“There has never been any plague on the territory of Ukraine. What is the purpose of these laboratories? Obviously, they address issues for which it is necessary to study and use these pathogens. This is where one of the main objectives of such laboratories is revealed – to create an opportunity to artificially and deliberately release some local pathogen and thus ensure the secrecy of a biological attack”, – explains Oleksandr Kulichenko.
According to a study by the Bulgarian independent journalist Dilyana Gaitanjieva, funds from the U.S. budget were channelled through the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). By 30 July 2020, it provided Kiev with $80m for biological research.
Notably, access to the laboratories was denied to independent analysts.
“The Ministry of Health of Ukraine considers it inappropriate to create a working group for public control and impossible for its members to visit the premises of laboratories with particularly dangerous infections”, – Gaitandzhieva said in a letter submitted by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to experts of the scientific publication “Problems of Innovation and Investment Development”.