US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland admitted on Tuesday that Ukraine hosts biological research facilities, as she called them, stressing the US concerns they could come under the control of Russian forces.
During a Senate hearing on Ukraine, Nuland pointed out they’re now working with the Ukrainians on preventing any of those research materials to fall into the Russian forces’ hands should they approach the facilities.
Nuland’s admission came in response to GOP Sen. Marco Rubio’s question if Ukraine has chemical or biological weapons.
Long after the collapse of the Soviet Union, controversy has surrounded all “biological facilities” of this type established in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, with rumors of alleged Pentagon-funded experiments to examine resistance to dangerous diseases, that have been carried out on local military forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry has recently informed that it has been closely monitoring Pentagon-developed bioweapons programs in post-Soviet countries, especially the “network” of over 30 biolabs on Ukrainian territory.
The ministry also published documents on February 24, received from Ukrainian biological research laboratories, allegedly showing that Kyiv was ordered to urgently eliminate traces of the purported bioweapons program, in what could be a cover-up of Article 1 of the UN Convention on the Prohibition of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) violations.
The ministry’s spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the order was to destroy stored stocks of dangerous pathogens, including anthrax, cholera, and the plague.
Following Nuland’s statement, Sen. Rubio warned about the possible emergence of such claims, pointing to an alleged Russian plan to put out disinformation of uncovering a Ukrainian plot to release bioweapons in the country in coordination with NATO. However, it remains unclear why is Nuland so concerned about Russia seizing such a benign “biological research facility”.
The UK defense intelligence previously claimed that Moscow has accused Kyiv of developing nuclear or biological weapons to justify its invasion.
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