UN rejects Russia's allegations of US-Ukrainian biological weapons program
Western countries on Friday accused Russia of spreading "wild" conspiracy theories at the United Nations, after a Moscow delegate during a Security Council session accused the United States and Ukraine of researching the use of bats to wage biological warfare.
Moscow called an emergency meeting of the Security Council, where it repeated its previous allegations without providing evidence that Washington funded biological weapons research in Ukraine.
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, said Kyiv ran a network of 30 laboratories conducting "extremely dangerous biological experiments" and aimed at spreading "viral pathogens" from bats to humans.
In Russian, Nebenzia added that pathogens include plague, anthrax, cholera and other fatal diseases, without providing any evidence.
He told the council that "experiments are being conducted to study the spread of serious diseases using active parasites such as lice and fleas."
Washington and Kiev have denied the existence of laboratories aimed at producing biological weapons in the country.
UN Deputy Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said during the session that the UN "is not aware of any biological weapons program in Ukraine."
The British ambassador to the United Nations, Barbara Woodward, accused Russia of using the Security Council to utter "a series of wild and irresponsible conspiracy theories that have absolutely no basis".
"Let me put it diplomatically: This is complete nonsense. There is not even an iota of credible evidence that Ukraine has a biological weapons program," she said.
For her part, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said her country helped Ukraine operate public health facilities that detect diseases such as Covid-19.
"This is work that has been done proudly, clearly and openly," she said. "This work is about protecting people's health and has absolutely nothing to do with biological weapons."
Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of ordering the meeting "for the sole purpose of lying and spreading misinformation".
She noted that the United States was "deeply concerned" that Russia's goal in requesting the hearing was to set a "false alarm" for its use of its own chemical weapons in Ukraine.
"Russia has a track record of falsely accusing other countries of violations that it itself is committing," she said.
On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry accused the United States of funding research to develop biological weapons in Ukraine, which it invaded on February 24.
These allegations were later repeated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
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