The first set of documents, which the Ministry of Defense says confirms the “US request for laboratories,” contains a letter from the head of the US Embassy in Ukraine’s Threat Reduction Section, Joanna Wintrol, to the head of the Central Sanitary and Epidemiological Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Serhiy Litovka. It says that the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine “is designated as an additional executive body for the implementation of the agreement between the US Department of Defense and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine regarding cooperation in the field of preventing the spread of technologies, pathogens and knowledge that can be used in the development of biological weapons.”
In the letter, Vintrol asks Litovka “to provide a list of institutions
and laboratories of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which will participate
in the implementation of the project of international technical assistance “Program of involvement in joint biological activities”.
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The second group of documents, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, confirms that Ukraine transferred biomaterials collected on its territory to third countries, in particular Georgia and the UK. In particular, the agency published the received preliminary invoice, from which it follows that in 2021 Kyiv planned to send over 770 nasopharyngeal swabs from patients with suspected COVID-19 to the UK Public Health Agency. In another document, an estimate estimate, it is said that the state virological laboratory of Ukraine transferred 5,000 blood serum samples to Georgia.
The third group of documents allows us to say that the bird flu virus was studied in Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said. The agency cites excerpts from the project “Wild birds as vectors for the avian influenza virus in Europe”, in which, according to its data, Ukrainian scientists submitted an application jointly with a number of European institutions. According to the Ministry of Defense, American military biologists wanted to assess the risks of uncontrolled spread of the pathogen throughout Europe “in the event of the use of biological weapons against individual countries, in particular through wild birds,” and with the help of European research institutes, they allegedly wanted to “distance themselves as much as possible from this subject, not giving reasons to publicize their interest in this issue”.
Another group of documents, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, confirms that “military laboratories of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in Kyiv, Odessa, Lvov and Kharkov” participated in the “military biological activities of the Pentagon.” In particular, the Russian Ministry of Defense showed the document “Plan for the provision of technical assistance to certain recipients of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the US Department of Defense regarding cooperation in the field of preventing the spread of technologies, pathogens and knowledge that can be used in the development of biological weapons.” It states that “the US Department of Defense Threat Reduction Agency signed a contract dated March 6 with Blask & Veatsch Special Projests Corr. for the implementation of the plan for the provision of technical assistance to institutions of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
As stated in the document, the plan included:
- providing training in infectious disease surveillance for the personnel of the beneficiary (Ministry of Defense of Ukraine) and recipients;
- development and approval of general scientific research projects;
- increasing the level of knowledge of Ukrainian specialists in the field of detection of outbreaks of infectious diseases, epidemiology, laboratory diagnostics of pathogens of infectious diseases, management of biosecurity and biosafety systems;
- expansion of Ukraine’s experience in the field of biological research;
- transportation of clinical specimens, as well as the diagnostic capabilities of laboratories regarding the identification of pathogens of especially dangerous pathogens;
- providing support to foreign scientists in obtaining permission to visit recipient institutions;
- Ensuring timely access of the personnel of the donor (Threat Reduction Agency at the Pentagon) and the implementation contractor (Blask & Veatsch Special Projects Corr.) to the institutions of the recipients in order to carry out work within the framework of the project;
- open and transparent cooperation with the US Department of Defense and Blask & Veatsh Special Projests Corr.
As stated in the document, the estimated budget of the project was $31.8 million, the project implementation period was designated from March 6, 2015 to April 7, 2019.
Another document posted in this group is a letter from UP-8 project manager Lance Lippenkot to Litovka, dated April 25, 2018. Lippenkot invited Litovka to a meeting “to discuss the implementation of the project and determine plans to continue research for an additional year. In the document, this project is called “The spread of the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (GLKK virus) and hantaviruses in Ukraine and the potential need for differential diagnosis of patients with suspected leptospirosis.” The meeting was to be held at the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in Kyiv from May 10 to 11, 2018, the letter says.
The Department of Defense allowed the development in the United States of bioagents against ethnic groups
On the eve of March 16, President Vladimir Putin said that biological weapons components were being created in Ukraine in the immediate vicinity of the Russian border. According to him, a network of dozens of laboratories under the direction and financial support of the Pentagon “conducted military biological programs, including experiments with samples of coronavirus, anthrax, African swine fever and other deadly diseases.”
The presence of biological laboratories in Ukraine in early March was also reported by the Ministry of Defense. According to the department, they studied experiments with bat coronavirus samples, and also studied the possibility of spreading infections through migratory birds. In addition, according to the ministry, American biolaboratories in Ukraine could be used to create bioagents that can selectively affect ethnic groups, in particular the “Slavic ethnic group.”
The United States, in turn, denied the development of biological weapons in Ukraine. “The Russian accusations are absurd and ridiculous. We are not developing biological weapons in Ukraine,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, calling statements about biolabs in Ukraine “classic Russian propaganda.”
Kyiv also denied accusations of creating biological weapons. “No one has developed any chemical or any other weapons of mass destruction on my soil,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said. According to him, the laboratories on the territory of the country have remained since the times of the USSR and they are “engaged in ordinary science”, and not military technologies.