The United States has denied Russian claims that Washington is operating biowarfare laboratories in Ukraine, calling the allegations “preposterous” and warning that Moscow might seek to use chemical or biological weapons during its ongoing offensive on its neighbouring country.
The US denial on Wednesday came hours after Russia renewed its accusations that Washington was working with Kyiv to develop biological weapons in the vicinity of the Ukraine-Russia border.
Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, called the Russian claim “preposterous” in a series of posts on Twitter and said it was Moscow “that has a long and well-documented track record of using chemical weapons”.
These included the “attempted assassinations and poisoning of” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political enemies like the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, she said.
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The Russian Defence Ministry on Thursday announced that the US-funded biological labs located in Ukraine were conducting experiments with bat coronavirus samples.
ReplyDelete"According to the documents, the American side planned to conduct work on pathogens of birds, bats, and reptiles in Ukraine in 2022, with a further transition to studying the possibility of carrying African swine fever and anthrax", chief spokesman for the Ministry of Defence Major General Igor Konashenkov said.
In addition, the facilities were studying the possible spread of pathogens via wild birds, migrating between Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in the region.
"The purpose of this - and other Pentagon-funded biological research in Ukraine, was to create a mechanism for the covert spread of deadly pathogens", he added.