Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
Mainstream western media decided for us that the Russian accusation of US-funded biological research labs in Ukraine was fake news. However, Victoria Nuland, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, testified Tuesday to Congress that, “Ukraine has biological research facilities, which, in fact, we are quite concerned that Russian troops, Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of.”
The US media first denied the existence of the labs, then tried to peddle them as harmless, and after Nuland’s testimony, we are made aware they are so dangerous that should the labs fall into Russian hands, there could be a bioterrorism attack.
The biological research facilities in Ukraine could house advanced biological weapons or dual-use research that has the potential to be weaponized.
Biden’s Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the US “is in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention and does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere.”
On March 4, Le Courrier des Stratèges revealed that there are 11 bio-laboratories in Ukraine linked to the US that “work with very dangerous pathogens”. The newspaper continued, “With the support of the United States, the first biological center in Ukraine was opened on June 15, 2010, as part of the Mechnikov Anti-Plague Research Institute in Odessa in the presence of U.S. Ambassador John Tefft. The Odessa center has been awarded a level to work with strains used in the development of biological weapons. In Ukraine alone in 2013, bio-labs were opened in Vinnytsia, Ternopil, Uzhhorod, Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Simferopol, Kherson, Lviv, and Lugansk with U.S. support.” According to the newspaper, these laboratories were built under the US Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (DTRA), a combat support agency within the US Department of Defense.
The US Embassy in Kyiv published documents on its website detailing the funding of labs authorized to handle pathogens. They were deleted as soon as the Russian attack started; however, the internet has a memory and can be seen here.
The Biological Threat Reduction Program’s (BTRP) priorities in Ukraine are to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern and to continue to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats.
In 2019, BTRP constructed two laboratories for the latter, one in Kyiv and one in Odesa.
Biosurveillance Network of the Silk Road (BNSR)
In 2016 the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection signed a memorandum on joining a multi-national working group to strengthen global health security and create well-functioning disease surveillance networks in the Eastern European region that includes Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.
The Silk Road is an economic project that is a primary goal of China.
The US has worked with Ukraine in the “development of a bio-risk management culture; international research partnerships; and partner capacity for enhanced bio-security, bio-safety, and bio-surveillance measures.” The US Embassy in Ukraine openly admitted collaborating with Ukraine “to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern and to continue to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats.”
In 2018, the Russian Defense Ministry accused the US of running a secret biological weapons program at the Richard G. Lugar Center for Public Health Research in Tbilisi, Georgia, a former Soviet state with a history of conflict with Russia, and facing Moscow-aligned separatists along the border.
In 2005, the Pentagon and the Ukrainian Health Ministry signed an agreement “Concerning Cooperation in the Area of Prevention of Proliferation of Technology, Pathogens, and Expertise that could be used in the Development of Biological Weapons.” The treaty included instructions regarding “sensitive” information from the US that “should be withheld from public disclosure by the government of Ukraine.”
Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, alleged that Russian forces in Ukraine had come into possession of intelligence uncovering “an emergency attempt to erase evidence of military biological programs” and demanded Washington disclose such activities to Moscow and the international community.
Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said “Russia has found during its military operations that the US uses these facilities to conduct bio-military plans.”
“According to data released by the U.S., it has 26 bio-labs and other related facilities in Ukraine, over which the U.S. Department of Defense has absolute control,” Zhao said. “All dangerous pathogens in Ukraine must be stored in these labs and all research activities are led by the U.S. side.”
“Under current circumstances, for the sake of the health and safety of people in Ukraine, neighboring regions, and beyond, we call on relevant sides to ensure the safety of these labs,” he added. “The U.S., in particular, as the party that knows the labs the best, should disclose specific information as soon as possible, including which viruses are stored and what research has been conducted.”
“Using such pretexts as cooperating to reduce biological safety risks and strengthening global public health, the U.S. has 336 biological labs in 30 countries under its control. 336, you heard me right,” Zhao said. “It also conducted many biological military activities at the Fort Detrick base at home.”
Fort Detrick in Maryland was once home to the Pentagon’s biological weapons program. According to the FBI, the 2001 anthrax attacks that terrorized the nation came from a US Army Research scientist, Dr. Bruce Ivins, working at the US Army’s infectious disease research lab in Fort Detrick where the Army had created highly weaponized anthrax strains, which Ivins then unleashed as a weapon. In 2019 containment breaches led to the suspension of research involving deadly pathogens.
Zhao added, “The U.S. has been standing alone in obstructing the establishment of a Biological Weapons Convention verification mechanism and refusing verification of its biological facilities at home and abroad for the past two decades.” He added, “Once again we urge the U.S. to give a full account of its biological military activities at home and abroad and subject itself to multilateral verification.”
Victoria Nuland
Victoria Nuland is not new to Ukraine. While working for Hillary Clinton and John Kerry’s State Department under President Obama, Nuland was instrumental in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, which others call a coup, that removed a Russian-friendly government and replaced it with a pro-US-EU-NATO regime.
Nuland was VP Dick Cheney’s deputy national security adviser, President Bush’s Ambassador to NATO, then she ran Ukrainian policy for President Obama, and now President Biden.
Coup in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had been in negotiations with the EU concerning a political and trade agreement involving a large loan among other items throughout 2012 and the better part of 2013. The Ukrainians asked for $160 billion to offset trade restrictions that Russia would likely implement as a result of the deal. The EU could only offer $828 million. Russia then offered Ukraine a $15 billion loan and cut Russian natural gas prices by almost a third. Yanukovych canceled negotiations with the EU and accepted Moscow’s offer.
US Intervention
Nuland, then-Assistant Secretary of State, spoke by telephone on January 28, 2014, to US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. The leaked phone call revealed Nuland and the Obama administration were involved in a regime-change operation to remove Ukrainian President Yanukovych and replace him with a US-EU-NATO puppet.
The call transcript: Nuland: “I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience.” (referring to Arseniy Yatsenuk)
Within weeks, Yatsenyuk was prime minister of Ukraine and signed an EU trade agreement which began the countdown to war with Russia. Next, he called on the EU to stop the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and tightened immigration policy for Russian citizens entering Ukraine.
Less than a month after Nuland’s phone call, Yanukovych fled the country. However, the vote to impeach Yanukovych and elect new officials was illegal under the Ukrainian Constitution, and VP Joe Biden played a key role in getting this vote passed.
Nuland and Pyatt discussed how to influence opposition leaders and leverage ties with the UN to legitimize this unconstitutional vote. That is the definition of a coup in a country that borders Russia and is 500 km from Moscow, and it worked.
The new Pro-US regime in Kyiv revoked the 2013 Russian trade deal. Ukraine then began public announcements that they intended to join NATO and participated in the NATO-sponsored ‘Clear Sky’ event held in Ukraine in 2018.
We sit on the brink of World War because of the unrelenting US urge for regime change. Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, and Syria are examples of Washington’s refusal to let foreign countries find their own way, but instead insisting on forcing them to conform to a western image.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
