The purpose of the special military operation is to eliminate the anti-Russian enclave, which is being created on the territory of Ukraine and threatens Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during an open lesson for schoolchildren in Kaliningrad. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Xinhua that "undeclared biological programs implemented with the support of the Pentagon in Ukraine in close proximity to Russian borders were of deep concern."
Speaking at a meeting of the leaders of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, held in the Kremlin on May 16, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "As you know, dozens of specialized biological laboratories and centers have been created in our common region by the Pentagon... Their main task is to collect biological materials and study for their own purposes the specifics of the spread of viruses and dangerous diseases. "
In this regard, Vladimir Putin said that he expects to support the Russian proposal to create a profile council within the framework of the CSTO, a correspondent for The Moscow Post reports.
During the special operation to protect Donbass, documentary evidence was obtained that components of biological weapons were created in the immediate vicinity of the borders of Russia, methods and mechanisms for destabilizing the epidemiological situation in the post-Soviet space were worked out. For many years, these works were funded from the budget of the US Department of Defense. Strains of cholera, anthrax, tularemia were among the tasks of these laboratories. This violated and violates the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC).
Russia this week should submit in Geneva documentary evidence of violations of the articles of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons by the authorities of the United States and Ukraine.
American "collectors"
The head of the troops said radiation, chemical and biological protection (RCBZ) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Igor Kirillov, speaking on September 3 at a briefing, said that the collection of the Research Institute named after Mechnikov in Odessa, exported by the Americans in February 2022, totaled more than a thousand containers with anthrax and cholera pathogens.
Russia at various international sites has repeatedly offered the United States and Ukraine to clarify why studies on the Pentagon are being carried out on the territory of the latter? Why does this topic not correspond to the current problems of health care in Ukraine? Finally, what are the Americans hiding behind the regime of secrecy and limited access to information and premises in which work was carried out?
It would be naive to believe that Washington, having lost its leadership in modern weapons systems, will not look for new areas and directions of confrontation with Moscow. The presence of the United States on the borders of the Russian Federation makes it possible for the Pentagon to use geography in order to create threats to the security of Russia. One source of such threats is biological and toxin weapons.
These weapons of mass destruction were used during the Roman Empire. The plague pathogen was used as a biological weapon in medieval Europe. In China, during World War II, Japanese occupiers developed and tested especially virulent strains of plague bacillus.
The damaging element of biological weapons are pathogens or their spores, as well as viruses and bacterial toxins. They are used to defeat the population and manpower of the enemy, infect food, livestock and crops. It takes time and laboratory studies to record the use and identify which type of weapon was used. Or access to the sources of its testing and production. Biological laboratories in Ukraine have become such a source.
Unlike nuclear weapons, which the United States places on the territory of NATO partner countries, the alliance's biological policy allows it to approach Russia's borders uncontrollably. The US is particularly interested in cholera and plague. The application of these pathogens can be disguised as natural outbreaks.
The collection of the Institute named after Mechnikov in Odessa, exported by the Americans, stored 654 containers with the causative agent of anthrax, 422 containers with the causative agent of cholera. " The movement of pathogens has not been monitored by the WHO, the BSTR, or other international institutions. This is a violation of the provisions of the Convention approved by the 26th session of the UNGA on December 16, 1971, opened for signature on April 10, 1972, which entered into force on March 26, 1975. The KBTO is perpetual and has 183 participants.
Violations of the Convention on the Prohibition of Bioweapons
Employees of the institute confirmed that the collection was exported to the United States in February. Article III of the BSTR prohibits the transfer of bioweapons and any assistance in their development and acquisition. The available documents and testimony confirm numerous cases of transmission abroad from Ukraine of samples of human tissues and serum, dangerous pathogens and their vectors.
The Pentagon is transferring biological weapons programs unfinished in Ukraine to the countries of the post-Soviet space, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and the Baltic countries. In the American program in Ukraine, there were 46 laboratories and the number of exported strains can be more than ten thousand. Taking into account the allies, at least 16 thousand biological samples could be exported outside Ukraine.
Russia this week should submit in Geneva documentary evidence of violations of the articles of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons by the authorities of the United States and Ukraine. There will be a meeting of the states parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons on the issue of non-compliance by the United States and Ukraine with obligations under the specified international treaty. "During the event, documentary evidence of their violation of Articles I and IV of the Convention will be presented," Kirillov said at a briefing on Saturday.
The purpose of the event is for organizations responsible for compliance with the Convention, and the world community to pay attention to a number of threats of a biological nature, the general added. Currently, there are more than 50 biological laboratories in close proximity to the borders of the Russian Federation, modernized at the expense of the Pentagon and controlled by it. In total, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries are under the control of the US military department.
The role of Kyiv has yet to be investigated
According to documents at the disposal of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in 2004, tests of a vaccine against tularemia developed by the Research Institute of Infectious Diseases of the Ground Forces were carried out on US military personnel. 1,064 people took part in them, 468 cases of complications were registered. Risky work decided to transfer outside the United States. This, in particular, is evidenced by the agreement between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Pentagon, signed on August 29, 2005.
Files of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, published on March 17, show that research began in 2009.
Since the start of the Ukrainian "UP projects" (UP-4, UP-8) in 2016, Washington and Kyiv have been silent about them in the annual reporting on the implementation of the Convention as part of confidence-building measures, and have not reflected the funding of Ukrainian laboratories by the Pentagon. The secrecy and classification of sensitive information gives rise to suspicion.
The order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine of February 24, 2022 on the emergency destruction of collections of pathogens increased fears of a possible violation of the requirements of Articles I and IV of the KBTO during the work carried out by order of the Pentagon, Kirillov said. According to him, these studies were carried out in accordance with the agreement "On cooperation in the field of preventing the spread of pathogens, technologies and knowledge that can be used in the development of biological weapons" from 2005, concluded between the Pentagon and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
For Ukraine, the main socially significant diseases are measles, rubella, tuberculosis, diphtheria, AIDS. The number of cases of measles has increased by more than 100 times. But American customers are interested in cholera, tularemia, plague, Congo-Crimean fever, hantaviruses, which are the causative agents of hemorrhagic fever. Kirillov clarified at a briefing that these pathogens were studied within the framework of the so-called Ukrainian projects "Yu-Pi" and "Tap."
These pathogens have natural foci both in Ukraine and in Russia, and their use can be disguised as natural outbreaks of diseases. The US biological laboratories and their "program" for reforming Ukrainian health care have led to an increase in the incidence of especially dangerous and economically significant infections. Atypical diseases appeared. So, since 2010, on the territories of the Russian Federation bordering Ukraine, an increase in the incidence of brucellosis, Congo-Crimean fever, Western Nile fever, African swine fever has been recorded. An uncharacteristic expansion of disease vector ranges was also observed.
How does it work
The costs of biological programs in Ukraine exceeded $250 million, coordination of work was carried out by the Department of Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The research was carried out in secrecy with limited access to them for Ukrainian specialists, the general noted.
Technical means of delivery and use of biological weapons based on drones with containers for infected insects are patented. According to Kirillov, there is a document of the US Agency for Patents and Trademarks No. 8 967 029 for an unmanned aerial vehicle for the spread of infected insects in the air. The description says that the device will help destroy or disable enemy troops without risking US troops.
"As you know, in accordance with American law, a patent in the United States cannot be issued in the absence of a real device. Thus, we can conclude that the container, as a means of delivering biological agents, was developed and produced, "Kirillov said.
Verification mechanisms
Kirillov stated the need to revise approaches to the investigation of chemical and biological incidents at the UN Security Council site. After the collective West renounces promises not to expand NATO into the East, Russia will not accept assurances about the peaceful nature of biological research. Measures to strengthen the Convention, in particular the French initiative on voluntary visits to biological laboratories, do not provide comprehensive control over their activities.
Without clear verification procedures, as well as control lists of microorganisms and toxins, the United States and Western countries can interpret the provisions of the BTWC in their interests, ignore the so-called "principle of ten," when decisions are made taking into account an alternative point of view, even if it is expressed by just one state.
According to Kirillov, an example of this is the site of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), "where the decision to empower the organization with attributive powers was made at the suggestion of the United States, contrary to the opinion of most countries." This makes it possible to fabricate evidence and appoint those responsible, as was done in relation to Syria in the course of investigations of chemical incidents.
What is Washington hiding?
Of particular concern, since 2001, the United States has been blocking any BTWC verification initiatives while the Pentagon oversees biological research. "This excludes the possibility of checking the activities of laboratories both in the United States and outside the national jurisdiction," Kirillov said at a briefing.
The KBTO reports silence the facts of cooperation in the military-biological sphere, while the United States has been blocking the development of a verification mechanism since 2001. "What are US officials so concerned about, including Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland?" Why did she talk about the undesirability of transferring biological laboratory materials to the control of Russian specialists? Kirillov asked.
And he added that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation monitors publications with a nervous reaction of the United States to documents on biological research. Washington is taking measures to avoid revealing the focus of these works. Journalists note the role of the American special services in ensuring that witnesses close to the implementation of closed military biological projects of the Pentagon in Ukraine do not appear. Such actions confirm the anti-Russian nature of the disguised US military-biological program.