Even though Russia bolstered its arguments justifying its fear of biological weapons in Ukraine at the United Nations Security Council meeting on Friday, the Security Council showed its helplessness, and western powers continued to turn a blind eye to it.
Ms Izumi Nakamitsu, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs the United Nations has pointed out that UNSC has “neither the mandate nor the capacity to investigate such allegations” .
Russian Federation and Ukraine are States parties to the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, which effectively prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling, and use of biological and toxin weapons.
Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations in his statement seemed to be on surer footing.
He said the western powers were in complete denial and “won’t accept that we are presenting facts and not just propaganda”.
Russian delegation claimed to have come out with “a new set of evidence of military biological programs that were conducted in Ukraine with the participation of the Pentagon”.
They said that during the “special military operation” in Ukraine they discovered that Ukrainian authorities, supported and directly sponsored by the US Department of Defense, were implementing dangerous projects in the framework of a military biological program.
“This activity was carried out on the Ukrainian territory, in the middle of Eastern Europe and close to Russia’s western borders, which posed a real threat to biological security of our country and the region.’
A meeting held on the issue a week ago in UNSC did not yield any answer from the western countries.
The Russian delegation said that the US claims that there are no US-controlled Biolabs in Ukraine, but is not able to explain documents showing “cooperation” between Kiev and Washington.
2005 Agreement between US and Ukraine
They referred to a 2005 Agreement between the US Department of Defense and Ukrainian Health Ministry which stipulates the Pentagon’s support for “cooperative biological research” with regard to “dangerous pathogens located at the facilities in Ukraine”.
Documents have been found which show that the US was not assisting the Ministry of Health as they claimed, but rather the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. “This morning we circulated as UNSC document a set of materials, where you can find “Plan of technical assistance to certain recipients of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine”.
It confirms that Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) directly funded and supervised military biological projects in Ukraine. The total funding amounted to 32 million USD.
The funding has primarily gone to the regional sanitation and epidemiological laboratories of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine.
The Russian statement lambasted the US stating “This is not the “noble” assistance to Ukraine that American representatives are ranting about. This is cynical use of Ukraine’s territory and population for dangerous research that Washington does not want to have at home so that to not put its own population at risk. We would not be surprised should similar facts come to light regarding the activity of US-sponsored labs in other parts of the globe.”
The Russian delegation said, “US Defense Threat Reduction Agency chose the Biolabs in Kiev, Odessa, Lvov, and Kharkov. They were the executors of the UP-8 project aimed at studying the pathogens of the Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis and hantaviruses. From our point of view, the interest of US military biologists in these pathogens is related to the fact that they have natural foci both on the territory of Ukraine and in Russia, and their use can be disguised as natural outbreak of diseases.”
Research in the area of transmitting diseases to humans through bats is systematic and has been conducted in Ukrainian labs since at least 2009 under the direct supervision of specialists from the United States, they alleged. During the implementation of these projects, six families of viruses (including coronaviruses) and three types of pathogenic bacteria (pathogens of plague, brucellosis and leptospirosis) were identified. Those pathogens are most favorable for the purposes of infection, as they are characterized by resistance to drugs and rapid speed of spread from animals to humans, they said.
Within the framework of the FLU-FLYWAY project, the Kharkov Institute of Veterinary Medicine studied wild birds as vectors for the spread of avian influenza. At the same time, the conditions under which spread processes can become unmanageable, cause economic damage and pose risks to food security were assessed. Documents were discovered that confirm the involvement of the Kharkov Institute in the collection of avian influenza virus strains with high epidemic potential and capable of overcoming the interspecific barrier.
Information continues to be received about attempts to destroy biomaterials and documentation in laboratories in Ukraine in order to “cover up the tracks” of a military biological program, they claimed.
Russia has called for a strengthening of the BTWC (Biological and Toxic Weapons ) regime alleging that Ukraine has not kept BTWC informed regarding its activities in these areas.
Russia has said that BTWC regime should adopt a legally binding protocol to the Convention that would allow to create an effective verification mechanism and bind member states to report on their military biological activity abroad. The United States has been opposed to this work for almost 20 years now and refused to provide such data.
Russia which is already cornered because of its unilateral military aggression into Ukraine and facing severe sanctions globally is finding it very difficult to find its point of view heard on this issue as western powers are outrightly dismissing its plea saying that it is part of disinformation campaign of Russia and Kremlin is acting in “desperation” and “intentionally” spreading ‘outright lies’’ against the United States and Ukraine that they are conducting biological weapons activities in Ukraine.
Their point is that Russia is inventing false pretexts in an attempt to justify its own horrific actions in Ukraine. The United States does not own or operate any biological laboratories in Ukraine, it is in full compliance with its obligations under Biological Weapons Convention, and it does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere.
On the other hand, the west and US are pointing fingers at Russia and alleging that it is Russia that has active chemical and biological weapons programs and is in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention.
They allege that Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very crimes that Russia itself is perpetrating. These tactics are an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attacks on Ukraine.
Russia has one supporter in China which reiterated its concern and has said that both parties must dispel doubts regarding biological laboratories in Ukraine.
China’s position
China’s position was consistent with its stand of complete prohibition and thorough destruction of all weapons of mass destruction including biological and chemical weapons.
Compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is an obligation of all parties. China like Russia has also called for early negotiations on the establishment of a verification mechanism under the BWC, which will help improve global biosecurity
Not dismissing the new documents found by Russia as false propaganda, China wants one should act responsibly towards this “bio-military activity issue’’.
It said Russia China was not making an “overclaim” and one there should not have double standards.
Earlier China has rebutted US’ inconsistent and flawed responses regarding its biological laboratories in Ukraine, urging a full clarification of its bio-military activities within and outside its borders.
India also has advocated the implementation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) in ‘letter and spirit’.
India pointed out that it attaches high importance to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) as a key global and non-discriminatory disarmament Convention, prohibiting an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.
US Defense Department officials denied the accusations saying the United States is not assisting Ukraine with biological weapons in its war with Russia and there are no indications that biological weapons are being used.
| Posted by Sameer Khan | 
