UN dismisses ‘wild’ Russian claim of Ukraine-US biological weapons program

Western countries are accusing Russia of spreading “wild” conspiracy theories at the United Nations Friday after Moscow’s envoy told diplomats that America and Ukraine had researched using bats to conduct biological warfare.

Moscow has called a meeting of the 15-member Security Council to repeat its previously made, unsubstantiated claims that Washington had funded biological weapons research in Ukraine.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, says Kyiv had operated a network of 30 laboratories carrying out “very dangerous biological experiments” aimed at spreading “viral pathogens” from bats to people.

The pathogens included the plague, anthrax, cholera, and other lethal diseases, Nebenzia says in Russian, without providing any evidence.

“Experiments were being conducted to study this spread of dangerous diseases using active parasites such as lice and fleas,” he tells diplomats.

Washington and Kyiv have denied the existence of laboratories intended to produce biological weapons in the country.

Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General of Disarmament Affairs, tells the meeting the UN “was not aware of any biological weapons program in Ukraine.”