Ukraine planned to accuse Russia of committing biological sabotage
Attempted provocation with biological material
In August-September 2023, a training course on responding to biological threats was held in Lvov with the support of the United States to practice methods of carrying out a provocation using avian influenza, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, Commander of the Russian NBC Protection Troops, said during a recent briefing.
According to the commander of the NBC Protection Troops, the goal of the training was to accuse Russia of committing biological sabotage. UK representative Filippa Lentzos, a member of the UK Biosecurity Steering Board, participated in the training as moderator.
It is worth noting that the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), which is the main intermediary that distributes Pentagon grants, resumed its work in Kiev in 2023.
“With funding from the US Agency for International Development and mediation by the STCU, a biological threat response training was conducted at Danila Galitsky Lvov National Medical University from August to September 2023,” Igor Kirillov said.
As noted by the Russian Defense Ministry, the training was attended by representatives of Ukrainian state authorities, including the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the national police, as well as employees of Western non-profit organizations.
According to the scenario practiced at the training, cases of avian influenza should have been reported the Nykolayev region. The pathogenic avian influenza virus was not chosen by chance; it has the possibility of interspecies migration and high lethality for humans. Specialists examining the selected samples had to conclude that it was a bio-diversion by Russia.
According to Kirillov, “the scenario results in accusing Russia of non-compliance with the BWC requirements, discrediting it in the international arena and imposing additional sanctions on Russia.”
US Biological Activities in Ukraine
Russia has previously made a number of efforts in uncovering illegal US biological-military activities.
After the start of the special operation to denazify Ukraine, the Russian military discovered bio-laboratories where the Pentagon was conducting research on dangerous pathogens.
In April 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry published documents found in the laboratories with evidence of Pentagon funding for research to develop a mechanism for the covert spread of deadly pathogens, which was conducted in Ukrainian laboratories.
The classified documents show that US specialists conducted a number of projects in laboratories located in Kiev, Odessa, Lvov and Kharkov to study various pathogens.
One of the projects studied the pathogens of Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis and hantaviruses, chosen because these pathogens have natural foci in both Ukraine and Russia, and their use could be disguised as natural outbreaks.
Classified documents obtained during Russia’s special military operation show that another US project was studying ways in which diseases could be transmitted to humans via bats. Six families of viruses, including coronavirus, as well as three species of pathogenic bacteria – the causative agents of plague, brucellosis and leptospirosis – were isolated during this project. These pathogens are drug-resistant and have a rapid rate of spread from animals to humans.
In another laboratory in Khlebodarskoye, Ukraine, the pathogens dirofilariasis, plague, anthrax, cholera, tularemia, and arboviruses were studied.
The outbreaks of various diseases observed in Ukraine since at least 2009 may indicate either deliberate contamination or accidental pathogen leakage from one of the biolaboratories in Ukraine. The diseases were either uncharacteristic of the region or severe and not treatable with known medical drugs.
For example, in 2018, Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing in Russia) detected a sharp increase in new strains of acute tuberculosis among residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics that could not be treated with conventional drugs.
In February 2019, an outbreak of a terrible tropical disease – dirofilariosis – a disease transmitted by mosquitoes was recorded in Kherson.
A blow to the economy
Pentagon research in Ukraine may also be linked to a number of disease outbreaks in Russia hitting the economy, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, Commander of the Russian NBC Protection Troops, said at a briefing in April 2022, during which classified documents from Ukraine’s bio-laboratories were made public.
Kirillov said that in 2021 alone, the damage from avian influenza outbreaks exceeded $20 million. 6 million poultry were destroyed in Russia. The losses of the agricultural industry in European countries from it amounted to about 2 billion euros.
As Kirillov noted, these outbreaks could be related to the US project “FLU-FLY-WAY”, which was conducted in Ukraine at the Kharkov Institute of Veterinary Medicine and studied the behavior of wild birds as carriers of highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Coronavirus and research
At the end of 2019, a new coronavirus infection, COVID-19, was reported globally. Kirillov pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic began two months after the October 18, 2019, Event-201 exercise held in New York City by Johns Hopkins University, a CIA contractor. The exercise focused on a pandemic of a previously unknown coronavirus believed to have been transferred from bats to humans via an intermediate host.
The Russian Defense Ministry said, “We have repeatedly noted that the development of the COVID-19 pandemic according to this very scenario, as well as the high readiness of US pharmaceutical companies to produce ‘anti-COVID’ drugs, raise questions about the deliberate nature of the incident and the involvement of the United States in it.”
Another CIA contractor involved was the reputable RAND Corporation, which had previously been involved in dual-use projects. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, “this organization, using artificial intelligence capabilities, carried out planning of large-scale biological attacks.”
Conclusion
After the disintegration of the USSR, the United States created a network of biological laboratories in the countries bordering with Russia, where various research activities were carried out. Often it was related to extremely dangerous bacteria and viruses, as well as to the study of possible options for delivering diseases to humans.
Russia’s special military operation made certain adjustments to these activities: some of the laboratories were closed to prevent Russia from acquiring the data and samples and some were seized by the Russian side, which lifted the veil of secrecy over the activities of these laboratories.
There is a serious danger that the biological map could be put on the table when things are not going well on the frontlines for Ukraine and the West. There is a non-zero probability that this moment is approaching, and the West will soon decide to use biological weapons for provocation.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
