Russian officials last week repeated allegations that U.S. government agencies were running clandestine biological weapons programs in Ukraine—claims vigorously denied in the past by Washington, Brussels, and Kyiv.
On Aug. 17, Konstantin Vorontsov, a Russian Foreign Ministry official, reiterated Moscow’s demand that Washington provide information on its alleged “military-biological activities outside U.S. territory … including areas close to Russia’s borders.”
Mr. Vorontsov repeated longstanding claims that Russia had “evidence” of U.S.-run “biolabs” in Ukraine devoted to “the creation of biological weapons components.”
A day earlier, Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian military’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Unit, made similar allegations.
He accused the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) of “playing a role in U.S. biological programs in Ukraine.”
Based in Fort Detrick, Maryland, USAMRIID is the U.S. Army’s leading institution for research into countermeasures against biological warfare.
Related Stories
According to its website, the institute’s mission is to “provide leading-edge medical capabilities to deter and defend against current and emerging biological threat agents.”
In comments cited by Russia’s TASS news agency, Mr. Kirillov alleged that USAMRIID was collecting “dangerous pathogens,” testing “unregistered medicines,” and operating “dual-purpose programs.”
Russian troops in uniforms without insignia are seen atop of a tank with the letter "Z" painted on its sides, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 1, 2022. Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
When asked for comment, the U.S. State Department referred The Epoch Times to a March 9, 2022, statement that directly addressed the Russian claims.
“The Kremlin is intentionally spreading outright lies that the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons activities in Ukraine,” the statement read.
“These claims have been debunked conclusively and repeatedly over many years,” it added.
“We fully expect Russia to continue to double down on these sorts of claims with further unfounded allegations,” the statement concluded.
As of the time of writing, the U.S. Defense Department had yet to respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
‘Classic Russian Propaganda’
It is hardly the first time that Russian officials have leveled the allegations.Since Moscow launched its invasion of eastern Ukraine in February 2022, it has repeatedly accused the United States—and NATO—of running covert biological weapons programs on Ukrainian territory.
Within weeks of the initial invasion, the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed to have obtained documentary proof of attempts by Kyiv to “erase evidence” of Pentagon-funded “military biological programs” operating in Ukraine.
However, the ministry did not provide details regarding the documents it claimed to have in its possession.
Members of the United Nations Security Council cast their votes during a meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York City on Feb. 25, 2022. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby called the allegations “absurd” and “laughable.”
“There’s nothing to it,” he said at the time. “It’s classic Russian propaganda.”
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price accused Moscow of “inventing false pretexts … to justify its own horrific actions in Ukraine.”
The European Union likewise disparaged the claims.
“The credibility of information provided by the Kremlin is … very doubtful and low,” EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said.
“Russian disinformation has a track record of promoting manipulative narratives about biological weapons and alleged ‘secret labs’,” he added.
A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said that Kyiv “strictly denies any such allegation.”
UNSC Votes Down Probe
Yet despite the vociferous Western denials, Moscow has persistently repeated the claims—even at the UN Security Council.Last November, Russian calls for a formal inquiry into the allegations were thwarted when the United States, the UK, and France—all permanent council members—voted against the proposal.
Only Russia and China voted in favor, while the 10 non-permanent council members all abstained from casting ballots.
At the time, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Washington’s UN envoy, described Russia’s assertions as “pure fabrications … without a shred of evidence.”
The secretary of Russia's National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev attends an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the National Defense Control Center in Moscow, on Dec. 21, 2022. Sergey Fadeichev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
Speaking before the Security Council, she said the claims were a Russian attempt to “distract from the atrocities Russian forces are carrying out in Ukraine.”
For his part, Dmitry Polyansky, Moscow’s deputy UN envoy, voiced regret that the council had “failed to employ the mechanism of the Convention on Biological and Toxin Weapons.”
The Biological Weapons Convention, which came into force in 1975, prohibits signatories from developing, producing, or using biological and toxin weapons.
Speaking after the vote, Mr. Polyansky said Moscow would continue “making efforts to establish all facts connected with the activities of U.S. biological laboratories in Ukraine.”
‘Large-Scale Endeavor’
And it has.In January, the Russian Defense Ministry alleged that Russian forces in Ukraine had found thousands more documents pertaining to covert U.S. biological research programs.
Russian President Vladimir Putin echoed the claim in a Feb. 21 address, during which he asserted that the United States—in tandem with NATO—had run “secret biological laboratories near Russian borders.”
In April, a Russian parliamentary commission presented its final report on the subject, which doubled down on the allegations.
In recent years, the report claimed, U.S. biological-warfare activities had expanded into “a large-scale endeavor” and were typically conducted under the guise of “counter-terrorism” projects.
Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks to a crowd of more than 300 in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times
In June, Nikolay Patrushev, head of the Russian Security Council, alleged that U.S.-run biological programs could potentially be used to “create viruses.”
Speaking at a security meeting with his Central Asian counterparts, he raised the alarm about “Pentagon-supervised biological programs” allegedly being conducted in Central Asia.
“The Ukraine experience shows that practically all [American-run biological programs] have a dual purpose and can be used to create dangerous, racially-targeted virus strains,” Mr. Patrushev said on June 23, according to TASS.
Early this month, Astana denied rumors circulating online that dozens of U.S.-operated biolabs were being relocated from Ukraine to Kazakhstan.
“This is fake news,” the Kazakh Health Ministry said in a statement. “There are no plans to place bio-laboratories from third countries on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan.”
RFK Jr. Drops Bombshell
Western officials typically refer to Russia’s “biolab” claims as “conspiracy theory” and “disinformation.”But the claims aren’t only emanating from Moscow.
In an Aug. 15 interview with popular news commentator Tucker Carlson, U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared to make similar allegations.
“We [the United States] have biolabs in Ukraine because we’re developing bioweapons,” Mr. Kennedy declared during the interview.
“Those bioweapons are using all kinds of new … genetic-engineering techniques that were not available to previous generations,” he told Mr. Carlson.
“And they can make frightening stuff,” he added.
Mr. Kennedy did not provide sources for his assertion.
But in March of last year, Victoria Nuland, then U.S. under-secretary of state for political affairs, admitted that Ukraine did, in fact, have “biological research facilities.”
Speaking before Congress, Ms. Nuland—who now serves as Acting Deputy Secretary of State—added: “We’re working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of the Russians.”
