Russia has for the second time in a week used a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to accuse the United States of financing and supporting biological weapons labs in Ukraine.
The meeting was initially convened to vote on a Russian-drafted humanitarian resolution for the war-torn country it invaded which was withdrawn overnight by Moscow due to a lack of support.
Russia instead shifted the subject matter to accuse Washington of creating a real threat to biosecurity in the region, an allegation that was repudiated by the US envoy who was backed by most Council members who accused Russia of abusing the forum to push what they termed “unsubstantiated propaganda”.
After facing defeat due to a lack of support for its humanitarian resolution, Russia quickly pivoted to again accuse Washington of supporting the development of biological weapons in Ukraine. Russian envoy Vasily Nebenzia elaborates.
“We’ve already said that during Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, information was discovered regarding the implementation of the Ukraine authorities with the direct supervision of the US Ministry of Defence of dangerous projects as part of their military and biological programme. This activity was carried out on the territory of Ukraine in the centre of Eastern Europe and in the western borders of Russia which created a real threat for the biosecurity of our country and the whole region. The representative of the US wasn’t able to explain how the statements of the American officials about how there’s allegedly no US-controlled bio laboratories in Ukraine, how that tallies with the presence of documentary proof of this kind of cooperation.”
But the United States, backed by Ireland, France, Norway, Albania and the United Kingdom, in turn, accused Russia of using the Council to launder what they termed “its disinformation”, calling the allegations part of “a litany of bombastic and preposterous lies. US Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield says its bizarre conspiracy theories.
“Last week, we heard from the Russian representative a tirade of bizarre conspiracy theories. This week we’re hearing a whole lot more where that came from, things that sound like they were forwarded to him on a chain email from some dark corner of the internet. President Biden has a word for this kind of talk: malarkey. As I said one week ago, Ukraine does not have a biological weapons program. There are no Ukrainian biological weapons laboratories, not near Russia’s border, not anywhere. There are only public health facilities, proudly supported and recognized by the US Government, the World Health Organisation, and other governments and international institutions.”
China called for accused parties to respond to questions raised by Moscow to remove any doubts of the international community.
The United Nations for its part urged the parties to engage in consultations within the framework of the Biological Weapons Convention but again could not corroborate Russia’s claims.
High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu says,
The US has also warned that Russia was creating a false flag scenario under the guise of its own possible planning to use chemical or biological agents against the Ukrainian people.
UN says it’s not aware of biological weapons programs in Ukraine:
