The World Health Organization has recommended that Ukrainian public health laboratories dealing with infectious agents destroy any "high-risk pathogens" to prevent potential leaks during Russia's ongoing military operation against Ukraine.

According to a report published on the "Live Science" website, Reuters said in an email that the World Health Organization had previously worked with Ukrainian public health laboratories to develop security protocols aimed at preventing the "accidental or intentional" release of pathogens, and says The organization said this measure would prevent potential leaks.

"As part of this work, WHO has strongly recommended the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and other responsible bodies to destroy highly dangerous pathogens to prevent any potential leaks," the email reads.

The agency advised all affected parties to "contact for technical assistance as needed" regarding the safe disposal of any pathogens.

And according to what Reuters reported in an exclusive report to it, the World Health Organization did not specify when this recommendation was issued, or if that recommendation had been implemented, nor did it indicate the pathogens that must be destroyed.

The World Health Organization has recommended the destruction of any "highly dangerous pathogens" to prevent their spread (social networking sites)

Fears of biological warfare

Biosecurity experts say the move of Russian forces into Ukraine and the bombing of its cities have increased the risk of pathogens escaping when any of these facilities are destroyed.

Like many other countries, Ukraine has public health laboratories looking at how to mitigate threats of serious diseases to animals and humans, including "Covid-19", and its laboratories have recently received support from the United States, the European Union and the World Health Organization.

The WHO email, on the other hand, made no mention of pathogens that could be used in biological warfare, which Russia has long claimed to be in Ukrainian laboratories.

On March 9, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova repeated Russia's old claim that the United States runs a biological warfare laboratory, and claimed that Russian forces discovered documents in Ukraine that provided evidence that the Ukrainian Ministry of Health had ordered the destruction of samples of plague, cholera and anthrax. virulence and other pathogens before the start of the war.

On the other hand, both the United States and Ukraine denied these allegations.

“Russia has been working on laboratories in Ukraine for years,” Dr. Alistair Hay, professor emeritus of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, said in a report to Science Media Center. Russia's allegations.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that specific ethno-biological agents were developed in Ukraine (Wikipedia)

allegations of response

After Zakharova's statement, Russia's Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Chumakov, repeated her accusation on March 9, after which Russia submitted a formal request that the UN Security Council meet to discuss "the military biological activities of the United States on the territory of Ukraine."

In response, a Ukrainian presidential spokesman said, "Ukraine vehemently denies any such claim." US government spokesmen also strongly denied Zakharova's accusations, saying that Russia could use its allegations as a pretext to deploy its chemical or biological weapons.

"This is exactly the kind of false science effort we were warned about, and that Russia might use to justify a biological or chemical attack," said Olivia Dalton, a spokeswoman for the US mission to the United Nations.

"We will not allow Russia to use the United Nations Security Council as a place to promote its disinformation," she added.

On the other hand, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that the World Health Organization, which is again working with Ukrainian laboratories, previously stated that it was "not aware of any activity by the Ukrainian government that is inconsistent with its obligations under international treaties, including chemical weapons." or biological weapons.

The Russian Defense Ministry has also claimed that specific ethno-biological agents may have been developed in Ukraine.

Experts say it is highly unlikely to develop a weapon that targets specific ethnic groups, given that all Europeans have more genetics in common than other ethnic groups around the world.

Therefore, the differences between ethnic groups in both Eastern and Western Europe are not sufficient to target specific populations.