The US government supported 46 biological research facilities in Ukraine for the past 20 years, revealed the Pentagon on Thursday.
On that note, the US military accused Russia and China of “spreading disinformation and sowing mistrust” about its efforts to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
In a document titled ‘Fact Sheet on WMD Threat Reduction Efforts,’ the US Department of Defense for the first time revealed the specific number of facilities its government has sponsored in Ukraine.
The Pentagon claimed that these facilities were part of a peaceful public health project and were not focused on developing biological weapons, saying that the US has “worked collaboratively to improve Ukraine’s biological safety, security, and disease surveillance for both human and animal health,” by providing support to “46 peaceful Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and disease diagnostic sites over the last two decades.”
These programs are supposed to have focused on “improving public health and agricultural safety measures at the nexus of nonproliferation.”
The Pentagon insisted that the work of these biolabs was “often” carried out in collaboration with organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and that it was “consistent with international best practices and norms in publishing research results, partnering with international colleagues and multilateral organizations, and widely disseminating their research and public health findings.”
Only three laboratories in Ukraine possessed the required safety requirements to conduct the type of studies the Pentagon claimed to be engaged in, according to the Russian military. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of the Radioactive, Chemical, and Biological Protection Forces, referenced Ukrainian government sources to point to a number of difficulties at one of those sites in Odessa, as an example.
Source: Agencies (edited by Al-Manar English Website)
