The UN Security Council will meet on Friday at 3:00 p.m. GMT (4 p.m. in France) urgently on the alleged manufacture of biological weapons in Ukraine, at the request of Moscow, whose credibility in the field of chemical weapons has been put questioned by Washington and London during a session on Syria.
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Russia accuses Washington and Kiev of managing laboratories intended to produce biological weapons in Ukraine, which has been denied by the two capitals.
Moscow had already accused in 2018 the United States of secretly carrying out biological experiments in a laboratory in Georgia, another former Soviet republic which, like Ukraine, aims to join NATO and the European Union.
At a monthly meeting of the Security Council on the use of chemical weapons in Syria - a file still open and which continues to suffer from a lack of information from Damascus denounced by the UN -, Washington and London both mentioned Ukraine.
Since Wednesday, the United States and the United Kingdom have claimed that Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Russian disinformation
"
Russia has repeatedly disseminated disinformation regarding Syria's repeated use of chemical weapons
," Deputy US Ambassador Richard Mills said.
"
Russia's recent flood of lies in an attempt to justify the premeditated and unjustified war against Ukraine should make it clear, once and for all, that Russia cannot be trusted when it talks about the use of chemical weapons in Syria
," he said.
For ten days, "
Russia has continued its war of aggression against Ukraine, besieging cities, killing civilians indiscriminately, forcing millions of people to flee in search of safety
", said his British counterpart, James Kariuki. .
"
The parallels with Russian action in Syria are clear
" and "
the comparison also extends to chemical weapons, as we see the familiar specter of Russian disinformation looming in Ukraine
" on this subject, he added. .
Read alsoUkraine: artillery and thermobaric bombs at the heart of the Russian offensive
When questioned, the spokesman for the UN, Stéphane Dujarric, said on Thursday "
not to have any information (...) on their future use
" in Ukraine.
"
To do so would be illegal and a serious violation of international law
," he said.
If France did not mention Ukraine in its speech, the Albanian ambassador, Ferit Hoxha, whose country is a non-permanent member of the Security Council, made a point of making a long introduction on the Russian bombardment the day before from a Ukrainian pediatric hospital.
"
It is a crime that must not go unpunished
," he said.
The deputy Russian ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, rejected his accusation, affirming as Moscow had done before that this place, occupied by "
combatants
", "
has not received any more women close to giving birth for a long time
".
According to him, the photos showing a pregnant woman in front of this destroyed hospital are a montage.
