UN dismisses Russian claim of Ukraine-US biological weapons programme
- Moscow had called a meeting of the Security Council to reassert without proof that Washington and Kyiv were seeking to use bats to spread viral pathogens
- The US says it’s ‘deeply concerned’ that Russia sought the session as part of a ‘false flag effort’ for using chemical weapons of its own in Ukraine
Western countries accused Russia of spreading “wild” conspiracy theories at the United Nations Friday after Moscow’s envoy told diplomats that America and Ukraine had researched using bats to conduct biological warfare.
Moscow called a meeting of the 15-member Security Council to repeat its previously made, unsubstantiated claims that Washington had funded biological weapons research in Ukraine.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said Kyiv had operated a network of 30 laboratories carrying out “very dangerous biological experiments” aimed at spreading “viral pathogens” from bats to people.
The pathogens included the plague, anthrax, cholera and other lethal diseases, Nebenzia said in Russian, without providing any evidence. “Experiments were being conducted to study this spread of dangerous diseases using active parasites such as lice and fleas,” he told diplomats.
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Washington and Kyiv have denied the existence of laboratories intended to produce biological weapons in the country.