Russia's Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence (RCB) Troops began detailing the extent of the US bioweapons program in Ukraine last spring. Washington initially dismissed the revelations, but undersecretary of state Victoria Nuland eventually confirmed that the US does indeed have biolabs in Ukraine.

The Russian military has accumulated a collection of over 20,000 documents related to the US military-biological program in Ukraine, RCB Troops Chief Igor Kirillov has revealed.

"Over the period of the special military operation, Russian troops have secured over 20,000 documents, references and analytical materials, and interviewed eyewitnesses and participants in American military-biological programs," the officer said in a briefing in Moscow on Monday.

These materials, which continue to be reviewed and deciphered, confirm without a doubt the Pentagon's intent to create biological weapons in Ukraine, and to test them out on the populations of the Eastern European country and its neighbours, Kirillov said.

The RCB Troops chief provided a number of new details on Washington's activities, including a large-scale effort he said was undertaken in 2022 to evacuate Ukrainian specialists working on bioweapons to Western countries, including the US, Canada and the European Union. The relocation was undertaken in part to prevent Russia from interviewing these personnel to obtain more information about activities which may be in contravention of international obligations and treaty norms, Kirillov said.

Kirillov also outlined US efforts to transfer biological materials out of Ukraine into Poland, the Baltic states and Central Asia amid the curtailing of programs in Ukraine.

"The Pentagon is actively transferring unfinished research in the framework of Ukrainian projects to the states of Central Asia and Europe," the officer said, adding that Russia has information on US efforts to ramp up bio-defence cooperation with countries in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region as well - including Kenya, Singapore and Thailand.

"Under pressure from the international community, Washington is changing its approaches to organising military-biological activities, shifting the functions of customer to civilian departments - the Department of Health, the Energy Department, and the United States Agency for International Development [USAID, ed]. This allows the US administration to avoid criticism at international venues" and reduce pressure on the Pentagon and the Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Kirillov said.
 

New Questions About Coronaviruses

Referencing documents obtained and studied by the RCB Troops, Kirillov pointed to evidence that specialists from the EcoHealth Alliance has been engaged in research on coronavirus strain transmission mechanisms since at least 2015. EcoHealth Alliance is the US government-funded non-governmental organisation which funded controversial gain of function coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and which has been accused of helping to spark the global coronavirus pandemic in 2019.

"Earlier, we informed you about the work being carried out at Boston University to enhance the pathogenic properties of COVID-19, funded by US government money, and about the possible involvement of USAID in the emergence of a new coronavirus," Kirillov said.

"The key role in the implementation of these projects belongs to the EcoHealth Alliance intermediary. Documents received from DTRA confirm that since 2015, specialists from this entity have been studying the diversity of the bat population, searching for new strains of the coronavirus, mechanisms of their transmission from animals to humans. In total, more than 2,500 specimens were studied," Kirillov said.

Full document can be found here.
 

Questions About mRNA Vaccines and Event-201

Kirillov also pointed to outstanding questions about the apparent high degree of preparedness by American manufacturers to create mRNA vaccines specifically against coronaviruses, and pandemic planning by US officials and business leaders before COVID-19 was unleashed on the world.

"One gets the impression that pharmaceutical companies developed vaccines in advance, but could not bring them to market quickly due to the specificities of virus, which subsequently manifested itself in the low effectiveness of vaccination and numerous adverse reactions," the officer said.

Kirillov found it curious that "on October 18, 2019, two months before the first official reports of the emergence of a new coronavirus infection in China, Johns Hopkins University, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, held the Event-201 exercise in New York. In the course of this event, steps were practiced in the context of an epidemic involving a previously unknown coronavirus, which, according to legend, would be transferred from bats to humans through an intermediate host - a pig."

Full document can be found here.

"The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic precisely in accordance with the [Event-201] scenario raises questions about its possible deliberate nature, US involvement, as well as the real goals of US bioprograms aimed at enhancing the properties of dangerous pathogens," Kirillov said.

Complete document and summary can be found here and here.
 

Dangerous and Illegal Research in Ukraine

"We have repeatedly pointed out that the United States carries out its most controversial research, from the point of view of international law, outside its own territory," the officer said. One example is the experiments related to HIV infections conducted by American specialists on the territory of Ukraine since 2019. "Please take note of the fact that the target groups are not only 'patients at high risk of infection' - like people in prison or those suffering from drug addiction, but also personnel from the Ukraine's Armed Forces," Kirillov said.

According to Kirillov, after the liberation of the village of Rubezhnoye in the Lugansk People's Republic, investigators were able to examine the premises of the Pharmbiotest medical centre, determining that it was used to carry out clinical trials of experimental drugs with serious side effects for the treatment of leukaemia, mental disorders, neurological diseases, epilepsy and others.

Separately, earlier this month, residents in Lisichansk, Lugansk discovered a large burial site containing the remnants of biomaterials belonging to Pharmbiotest, including clinical sample and outpatient records. The fact that these materials were buried, instead of being burned, suggests that the elimination of this evidence was carried out with "extreme haste," Kirillov said.

Russia is concerned about evidence on the use of psychostimulants and narcotics by Ukrainian military personnel, including methadone and amphetamines, notwithstanding their criminalized status under Ukraine's own laws, the officer said.

"We believe that the actions of officials who have conducted research on Ukrainian military personnel whose blood contained high concentrations of antibiotics, narcotics, and antibodies to pathogens of infectious diseases require an appropriate legal evaluation," Kirillov stressed, pointing, for example, to extensive research by the Military Institute of the Taras Shevchenko Kiev National University involving water soluble antifatigue drugs on troops.

Full PDF document here. additional papers on Ukrainian research in this field here.
 

Russian Military Will Continue Unmasking US Biowarfare Program

"I would like to note that the publication by Russia on the Pentagon's military biological programs in Ukraine have received significant public interest. Mass demonstrations against the activities of US-funded biological laboratories have taken place in the countries of the post-Soviet space. Public organisations of the Eurasian Economic Union have adopted a resolution against biolabs funded by the Pentagon. A number of investigations have also been initiated inside the US itself," Kirillov said.

"The concern of the world community related to the activities of Pentagon-funded biolabs is growing precipitously. Issues raised by Russia at international platforms, including the Ninth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention State Parties, as well as the United Nations Security Council, have shown a lack of US willingness to engage in substantive dialogue. We consider it fundamentally important that the disclosure of facts about illegal military-biological activities has forced a number of countries to weigh the consequences of their interaction with the United States in the field of biosecurity, and take a fresh look at the need and expediency of such cooperation. The Russian Ministry of Defence will continue to work in this direction, and will keep you informed," Kirillov concluded.

Credits : Ilya Tsukanov
- A Moscow-based correspondent specialising in Eastern European, US and Middle Eastern politics, Cold War history, energy security and military affairs