Russia calls for a UN investigation into US "military-biological activities" in Ukraine

Russia has asked the UN Security Council to launch a UN investigation into the United States' involvement in the development of biological military weapons in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.

The ministry said in a statement that it had no choice but to submit a complaint to the President of the Security Council to request an international investigation, explaining that it had attached the complaint to a draft resolution.

Russia has previously accused the United States of financing a biological weapons program in Ukraine, claiming that it found evidence in Ukrainian laboratories, shortly after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine in late February.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the aim of the research was to "develop a mechanism for the covert dissemination of deadly pathogens."

American exile

In view of the renewed Russian accusations, the US ambassador to the United Nations considered that Russia's accusations of Washington's involvement in the alleged development of biological weapons in Ukraine were "pure slander" that was raised without evidence.

Addressing the Security Council on Thursday, Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield said, "I must take this opportunity to make things clear: Ukraine does not have a biological weapons program... and the United States does not have a biological weapons programme."

In turn, Adeje Ibo, Deputy High Representative in charge of disarmament issues at the United Nations, said that the latter was "not aware" of the existence of a biological weapons program in Ukraine, about which Russia requested a UN investigation.

"We are aware of the official complaint from Russia (...) regarding accusations of a biological weapons program in Ukraine," Ibo told the Security Council.

"As High Representative Izumi Nakamitsu told the Council in March and May, the United Nations is not aware of the existence of a biological weapons program. That remains the case today," he added, noting that the United Nations had no mandate or "technical capacity" to investigate the accusation.

It is worth noting that Russia had previously accused the United States in 2018 of secretly conducting biological experiments in a laboratory in Georgia, and it shares with Ukraine that both were former Soviet republics, and they are also seeking to join NATO and the European Union.