Alwaght- Russia has called for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss purported US-backed biological weapons programs in Ukraine, reported Russian broadcaster RT news.
Washington, however, has denied that it owns or operates any such biolabs in the country, while Kiev insisted that the facilities were engaged only in civilian research.
Moscow’s Deputy UN envoy Dmitriy Polyanskiy announced the move early on Friday, saying the mission had requested a Security Council summit for March 11, referring to a Defense Ministry briefing that US and NATO allies ran “military biological programs” in Ukraine.
The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency is “financing and conducting military biological research on the territory of Ukraine,” said the Russian defense ministry briefing, citing documents it said it captured at several facilities during Russia’s ongoing operation on the country.
Among other activities, the ministry said research was carried out at laboratories in Kiev, Kharkov and Odessa, three most important cities of the country, to “study the possibility of the spread of particularly dangerous infections through migrating birds.”
The US officials have rejected those charges however, with State Department spokesperson Ned Price telling reporters on Wednesday that the US is complies with the UN conventions on biological weapons.
"The US is in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention, and it does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere," Price said.
Instead, Price argued it was Russia that has been operating “active chemical and biological weapons programs,” though did not elaborate or provide evidence for the counter-accusation.
Responses from other American officials have been varying. Victoria Nuland, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, told lawmakers that Ukraine runs "biological research facilities." She declined to highlight any US role in running them, just warning that the Russian forces "may try to gain control of hazardous material from those labs."
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, denied any military aspects for the labs, saying they "focused on civilian science."
