Biological weapons in Ukraine? Five minutes to understand Russia's accusations against the United States

“In time of war, the truth is one of the victim principles,” historian Jean-Yves Le Naour told us recently.

The new accusations of Russia against the United States, which would have financed biological weapons in Ukraine, could be a new illustration of this.

Washington has firmly denied such charges, made numerous times and again this Thursday morning.

We take stock.

What is Russia accusing the United States of?

In short, to have contributed to the design of biological weapons in laboratories in Ukraine.

“The objective of this biological research funded by the Pentagon was to create a mechanism for the stealthy propagation of deadly pathogens,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Thursday morning.

❗️ В биолабораториях сша на украине шли опыты с Коронавирусом летучих мышей, заявили в Минобороны.

Целью было Создание механизма скрытого распространения смертоносных патогенов, Добавили в ведомствеhttps: //t.co/vuvnafu1lp pic.twitter.com/unyszjqi6l

— РИА Новости (@rianru) March 10, 2022

“In the established and funded laboratories in Ukraine, documents show that experiments were carried out with bat coronavirus samples,” he continued.

A statement that necessarily makes one think of SARS-CoV-2, whose origin is not yet established but which passed through bats before infecting humans.

This is not the first time, far from it, that such accusations have been made.

On March 6, this same Igor Konashenkov said he had “evidence” of a “concealment of all traces of the financing of the military biological program by the American Department of Defense in Ukraine”, reported the Tass agency.

“These theories, put forward by the Russian press from the spring of 2020 – and which had concerned, in their time, Georgia – are now taken up daily by the Russian Ministry of Defense”, writes Le Monde.

How does the United States respond?

The denials are firm.

In a series of posts to Twitter on Wednesday evening, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki denounced "false allegations" and "conspiracy theories" propagated by Russia "concerning alleged U.S. biological weapons and the development of chemical weapons in Ukraine”.

The United States is one of the first signatories to the Biological Weapons Convention, which entered into force in 1975.

We took note of Russia's false claims about alleged US biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine.

We've also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.

— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) March 9, 2022

"All this is an obvious ploy on the part of Russia to try to justify its new premeditated, unprovoked and unjustified attack against Ukraine", still castigated Jen Psaki.

According to her, such accusations could serve as a screen for Russia in the event that it uses chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.

Are such accusations justified?

No, according to the experts.

The US Department of Defense "has never had a biological laboratory in Ukraine", assures, for example, Andrew Weber, former assistant secretary for US nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, now project manager within the group of “Council on Strategic Risk” reflection.

Asked, an expert in biological weapons did not wish to answer, not judging "not appropriate to give substance to this type of disinformation".

"There have been reports of this type on several occasions in the past about other countries in the area and without any basis," he adds.

What is established, however, is that there is a partnership between the United States and Ukraine aimed at "securing pathogens and toxins of concern to the security of Ukrainian government facilities, while allowing peaceful research and the development of vaccines”, indicated at the end of April 2020 the American embassy in Ukraine.

The text also denounced “Russian misinformation regarding the strong US-Ukrainian partnership aimed at reducing biological threats”.

Read alsoDoubtful testimonies, denials, intox... how the conspiratorial sphere tries to minimize the Russian invasion

Questioned in the American Parliament on Tuesday March 8, the number 3 of American diplomacy, Victoria Nuland, acknowledged that Ukraine had “biological research facilities”.

She added that the United States was working with the Ukrainians "on ways to prevent these research-related materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces if they were to approach them."

But she in no way acknowledged that the United States would finance these Ukrainian laboratories or that they would take advantage of them to develop biochemical weapons.

And it continues to be mystifying how the US Government can issue such emphatic denials about the existence of dangerous biological labs in Ukraine given what Victoria Nuland said yesterday while testifying.

Ignoring this makes it disappear domestically, but not in reality.

pic.twitter.com/speKmOoMzD

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 10, 2022

"All the indications provided by independent researchers and official officials confirm that the United States supports the deactivation of biological agents, and that the work in the laboratories [in Ukraine] aims to prevent epidemics", summarized Filippa Lentzos, researcher in biological weapons and lecturer at King's College London.