"The U.S. biological laboratory in Ukraine has conducted experiments on bat coronavirus samples." Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Konashenkov said at a press conference on the 10th. On the same day, Lieutenant General Kirillov, the commander of Russia's "three defenses" force, provided more details on the biological military activities of the United States in Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense also made relevant materials available online, pushing the confrontation between the two sides over this issue to a high point.
The day before, White House press secretary Psaki sent eight tweets in a row, not only accusing Russia of engaging in a "false information operation", but also claiming that China "attends to conspiracy theories."
In this regard, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on the 10th that the international community has long been seriously concerned about the biological military activities of the United States. What did the United States do at its Fort Detrick base and 336 biological laboratories abroad? Is it in compliance with the provisions of the Biological Weapons Convention? The international community knows nothing about it. This cannot be dealt with in a sentence or two. It is not a responsible attitude to describe the concerns of the international community as false information.
According to RIA Novosti, Major General Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said at a press conference on the 10th that the Russian military found evidence in the documents of the Ukrainian biological laboratory that the Pentagon-funded research on the hidden transmission mechanism of deadly pathogens.
The documents show that the U.S. has conducted experiments on bat coronavirus samples in these labs. Russia will publish the contents of the document and the identification results soon. He said the purpose of the Pentagon's funding of biological experiments in Ukraine was to create a mechanism to covertly spread deadly pathogens.
A project of particular interest is the study of the spread of pathogens by wild birds migrating between Ukraine and Russia and other neighboring countries. The documents show that the United States plans to carry out research work in Ukraine on pathogens of birds, bats and reptiles, and further study the possibility of these animals spreading African swine fever and anthrax.
According to a report by the TASS news agency on the 10th, Lieutenant General Kirillov, commander of the Russian army's "three defenses" (radiation, chemical and biological weapons) forces, introduced the details of the military and biological plans implemented by the United States and its NATO allies in Ukraine at a press conference on the same day. . He said that the UP-4 project, which was implemented by US order, involved laboratories in Kyiv, Kharkov and Odessa. The goal is to study the potential for transmission of particularly dangerous viruses through migratory birds, including the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, which has a 50% fatality rate in humans. Due to Ukraine's unique geographical location, the migratory routes of birds traverse Eurasia, so 145 biological species were studied within the framework of the project.
Additionally, the U.S. P-781 program in Ukraine considers bats as a vehicle for potential biological weapons agents. The project includes research into bacterial and viral pathogens that can be transmitted from bats to humans: plague, leptospirosis, brucellosis and filariasis. The Russian Ministry of Defense emphasized that these studies were carried out on the Black Sea coast and the Caucasus, which are close to the Russian border. He also specifically mentioned that in the 1940s, members of the Japanese Unit 731, which specialized in biological and chemical weapons research, fled to the United States after the war.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov also mentioned this issue on the 10th. He said at a press conference after his talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba that day: "What the Pentagon has done in the biological laboratory is outrageous. They use money, US money, use Ukrainian territory to experiment with pathogens, use Making biological weapons." "The United States has established biological military laboratories around Russia and China. There is no denying that. I have no data on the fact that they have used this weapon. But there is no doubt that these are not peaceful experiments at all, It's experiments aimed at creating biological weapons. Also, (these experiments) target race, there's almost no doubt about that."
Although the mainstream American media seems to ignore the news, there are still many English-language media reports on Russia's latest allegations against the United States. The British "Daily Mail" reported the Russian side's claims but said Russia did not provide evidence. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said the new Russian allegations echoed previous debates between U.S. and Chinese officials over the origins of the new coronavirus. Russian tsargrad TV quoted Igor Nikulin, a former member of the United Nations Biological and Chemical Weapons Committee and a Russian military expert, as saying on the 10th that this is evidence that the United States is engaged in new crown virus research and has led to the global new crown epidemic.
In the face of the evidence given by the Russian side, the US side responded with "false information". White House Press Secretary Psaki tweeted 8 consecutive times on the 9th local time, saying that he noticed Russia's "false claims" and that "we have also seen Chinese officials go along with these conspiracy theories." "The United States is in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention and has not developed or possessed such weapons anywhere," she said.
In this regard, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on the 10th that since the United States mentioned the "Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons", why not tell the world by the way that the United States is the only country that still possesses chemical weapons? The international community has repeatedly asked the United States to complete the destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile as soon as possible. Regrettably and with concern, however, the destruction of the US stockpile of chemical weapons has twice been overdue. Even more puzzling is that if the United States does abide by the BWC, why has the United States exclusively opposed the establishment of a multilateral verification mechanism for 20 years?
