The renewed Russian accusations that the United States was operating biowarfare labs in Ukraine were refused on Wednesday by Washington, which called them laughable and pointed out that Russia may be laying the groundwork to use a chemical or biological weapon.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby called the Russian accusations absurd and laughable classic Russian propaganda, while State Department spokesman Ned Price accused Russia of inventing false pretexts to justify its own horrific actions in Ukraine.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also lashed out at Russian claims, pointing to the long and well-documented track record of using chemical weapons of Russia, including in attempted assassinations, and poisoning of Putin’s political enemies such as Alexey Navalny.
Moscow repeated late on Tuesday its accusation of several years that the US is developing biological weapons working with Ukrainian laboratories with Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova citing alleged anthrax development.
Zakharova talked about the alleged documents Russian forces unearthed in Ukraine that showed Ukrainian emergency attempt to erase evidence of Pentagon-financed military biological programs.
Russian claims were expanded on Thursday with the Russian Defense Ministry claiming that the US-funded biological labs in Ukraine were conducting experiments with bat coronavirus samples.
The chief spokesman for the Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov said that Washington allegedly planned to experiment in 2022 with pathogens of birds, bats, and reptiles, to study the possible spread of pathogens via wild birds, migrating between Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in the region with a further transition to studying the possibility of carrying African swine fever and anthrax.
US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland confirmed on Tuesday that Ukraine has biological research facilities, but those are, like in many other countries, public health laboratories researching how to mitigate the threats of dangerous diseases and are receiving support from the US, EU, and WHO.
The Ukrainian government also works with the Pentagon’s Biological Threat Reduction Program to ensure the security of pathogens and toxins that are stored in the laboratories.
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