Russia and U.S. Trade Accusations of Lying About Bioweapons in Ukraine

The United States and Russia went toe-to-toe Friday during an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, accusing each other of lying about the use of chemical and biological weapon labs in Ukraine.

Russian Ambassador Vasily Nevenzya claimed the U.S. Department of Defense funded and supervised a network of at least 30 biological weapons research laboratories in Ukraine that are “aimed at strengthening the pathogenic qualities” of the plague, anthrax, cholera, tularemia, and other lethal diseases using synthetic biology.

He claimed that Ukraine was planning to transport disease pathogens to Russia via migratory birds, bats, and insects.

“Ukraine agreed to make their country into a biological lab and their citizens as guinea pigs,” Nebenzya said.

The U.S. strongly denied the allegations and accused Russia of spreading misinformation to “fabricate allegations of chemical or biological weapons to justify its own violent attacks against the Ukrainian people.”

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Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, claimed Moscow was attempting to use the Security Council to “legitimize disinformation and deceive people.”

“I will say this once. Ukraine does not have a biological weapons program,” she said. “There are no Ukrainian biological weapons laboratories by the United States … not near Russia’s border or anywhere.”

Thomas-Greenfield also accused Russia of having “a track record of falsely accusing other countries of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating.”

Izumi Nakamitsu, the U.N.’s highest official for disarmament affairs, told the Security Council that the U.N. has no evidence that Ukraine has a biological weapons program. She added that both Ukraine and Russia were parties to a 1962 convention that banned the development and use of biological and chemical weapons.

The matter exploded on the world stage earlier this week after Russia made the allegation that the U.S. knew of dangerous biological research labs in Ukraine and U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland did not unequivocally deny it in a guarded response during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday.

“Ukraine has biological research facilities, which, in fact, we are now quite concerned Russian troops and Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of,” Nuland said. “So we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach.”

A spokesperson for the State Department later told the Washington Examiner Nuland “was referring to Ukrainian diagnostic and biodefense laboratories,” which “are not biological weapons facilities.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki warned Wednesday that Russia might use chemical or biological weapons against Ukraine and that the “preposterous” biolabs claim could be part of Moscow’s plan.

Russia likewise claimed that Ukraine could be preparing to attack its troops with chemical or biological weapons, a claim Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected.

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“That worries me very much because we have often been convinced that if you want to know Russia’s plans, they are what Russia accuses others of,” Zelensky said late Thursday in an address to his embattled nation. “I am a reasonable person. The president of a reasonable country and reasonable people. I am the father of two children.”

“And no chemical or any other weapon of mass destruction has been developed on my land,” he said. “The whole world knows this.”

China has also waded into the bioweapons lab controversy, repeating Russia’s claim multiple times.

“This Russian military operation has uncovered the secret of the U.S. labs in Ukraine, and this is not something that can be dealt with in a perfunctory manner,” ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Thursday. “It is not something they can muddle through by saying that China’s statement and Russia’s findings are disinformation, and are absurd and ridiculous.”

Russia, unlike the United States, has been accused by the international community multiple times of using chemical weapons in carrying out assassination attempts against President Vladimir Putin’s political opponents, such as Alexei Navalny, who is currently in a Russian prison. The Kremlin has also been accused of poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal with a Novichok nerve agent. Russia also supports the Syrian government, which has used chemical weapons against its own people in an 11-year civil war.