US denies Russian claims of biowarfare labs in Ukraine

The United States has denied Russian claims that Washington is operating biowarfare laboratories in Ukraine, calling the allegations “ preposterous” and advising that Moscow might seek to use chemical or natural munitions during its ongoing descent on its neighboring country.

The US denial on Wednesday came hours after Russia renewed its allegations that Washington was working with Kyiv to develop natural munitions in the vicinity of the Ukraine-Russia border.

Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, called the Russian claim “ preposterous” in a series of posts on Twitter and said it was Moscow “ that has a long and well-proved track record of using chemical munitions”.

These included the “ tried assassinations and poisoning of” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political adversaries like the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, she said.

Now that Russia has made these claims, she added, “ We should all be on the lookout for Russia to conceivably use chemical or natural munitions in Ukraine, or to produce a false flag operation using them.”

We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine. We’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.

— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) March 9, 2022

The US Department of State and the Pentagon also denounced the Russian claims.

In a statement, Ned Price, prophet for the Department of State, indicted Russia of “ contriving false excuses in an attempt to justify its own terrible conduct in Ukraine” and said Washington was “ in full compliance with its scores under the Chemical Munitions Convention and Biological Munitions Convention, and it doesn’t develop or retain similar munitions anywhere”.

John Kirby, Pentagon prophet, called the Russian allegations “ absurd”, “ laughable”, and a “ bunch of malarkey”.

“ There’s nothing to it. It’s classic Russian propaganda,” he told journalists.

The US officers also indicted China of “ echoing” Moscow’s “ conspiracy propositions”.

‘ Abolish substantiation’
Ukraine has also rejected the Russian claims, with a prophet for President Volodymyr Zelenskky saying Kyiv “ rigorously denies any similar allegation”.

There was no immediate response from Moscow.

Before on Wednesday, a prophet for the Russian foreign ministry had called on Washington to reveal information about what she called its illegal conditioning in Ukraine.

Maria Zakharova said Russia had documents showing the Ukrainian health ministry had ordered the destruction of samples of pest, cholera, anthrax, and other pathogens before February 24, when Russian forces moved into Ukraine.

Zakharova said the documents exhumed by Russian forces in Ukraine showed “ an exigency attempt to abolish substantiation of military natural programs” financed by the Pentagon.

“ It can be concluded that factors of natural munitions were being developed in Ukrainian Biolabs located in close vicinity of our border,” she said. “ The exigency destruction of dangerous pathogens on February 24 was a necessary step aimed at concealing the fact that Ukraine and the US had violated Composition 1 of the Biological and Toxin Munitions Convention.”

She handed no further details on the documents
The Chinese Foreign Ministry meanwhile on Tuesday said the “ US has 336 labs in 30 countries under its control, including 26 in Ukraine alone”. It also called on the US to “ give a full account of its natural service conditioning at home and abroad and subdue itself to multinational verification”.

When asked about the Russian and Chinese claims, a prophet for the United Nations said the global body has “ no information to confirm” reports “ about these kinds of labs”.

“ Our associates at the World Health Organization who have been working with the Ukrainian Governments said they’re ignorant of any exertion on the part of the Ukrainian Government, which is inconsistent with its transnational convention scores, including on chemical munitions or natural munitions,” said Stephane Dujarric, the UN prophet.

Ukraine has preliminarily said it, like numerous other countries, has public health laboratories probing how to alleviate the pitfalls of dangerous conditions affecting both creatures and humans.

Those laboratories have entered support from the US, European Union, and the World Health Organization, while the Pentagon’s Biological Trouble Reduction Program has also been working with the Ukrainian government to ensure the security of pathogens and poisons stored in the laboratories.

A former US functionary, who’s familiar with the cooperation between Kyiv and Washington, told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday that the US had helped to convert several Ukrainian laboratories that had been involved in the former Soviet Union’s natural munitions program into public health installations.

Independently on Tuesday, Victoria Nuland, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs of the US, told a congressional hail that Ukraine has natural exploration installations and that she was “ relatively concerned that Russian colors may be seeking to gain control of those labs”.

“ So we’re working with the Ukrainians on how they can help any of those exploration accouterments from falling into the hands of the Russian forces,” she added.