"Directly in the interests of the US military, the Pi-444 (P-444) project was implemented through the Ukrainian Scientific and Technical Center, the main purpose of which was to monitor avian influenza among wild birds from the Azov-Black Sea region. During the implementation of the project, the conditions under which the transmission of the virus can become uncontrollable, cause economic damage, and create food security risks were assessed," he said.
Kirillov stressed that over the past three years, the damage from bird flu in Russia has exceeded 4.5 billion rubles, more than 10 million poultry have been destroyed.
Earlier, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said that under the control of the United States, a secret project was being implemented on the basis of a laboratory in Kharkov to study the ways of transmitting diseases to humans through bats.