US 'afraid' biological labs in Ukraine will go into Russian experts' hands: Moscow's envoy

Moscow on Wednesday said the US is “afraid” that Russian experts will get their hands on “dangerous pathogens” which are allegedly “stored” at biological labs in Ukraine. Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov responded strongly after US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland admitted on Tuesday that Ukraine houses “biological research facilities” and stated that Washington is concerned the ‘research facilities’ could come under the control of Russian forces as the attack on Ukraine continues to intensify. 

However, Antonov claimed that Ukraine has 30 such facilities and the “Russian side possesses information on the elimination of some most virulent pathogens of plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases.” He also alleged that the contracting authority of the works carried out in “biological labs” in Ukraine is the US Department of Defence. The envoy added, “It is the DoD affiliated contractor Black and Veatch that takes part in the realisation of these projects.”

Russian ambassador to US said, “Allegations of the State Department’s representative show that the USA is afraid that these dangerous pathogens stored at the above-mentioned facilities will get into the hands of Russian experts. In this case, the violation by Ukraine and the United States of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons will be confirmed.”

“It makes you wonder how Washington will react to today's accusation from the PRC that the Pentagon has deployed 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries? Why are these dangerous objects created abroad? We are waiting for an honest and direct answer,” he added. 

'Russian forces may be seeking to gain control'

Earlier, Nuland had said during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, "Ukraine has biological research facilities, which in fact we are now quite concerned Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of, 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."

Nuland’s remarks came in the backdrop of UK defence intelligence claiming that Russia has accused Ukraine of developing ‘nuclear or biological weapons’ to justify its invasion into the neighbouring country. Earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry had published documents that showed that Kyiv was ordered to urgently eliminate traces of what was deemed as a biological weapons program. 

Image: AP