The Kremlin is accusing the U.S. of being involved in biological weapons research at Ukrainian labs, but such claims are “laughable” and part of a Russian disinformation campaign, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova, director of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ information and press department, said that in the course of their invasion of Ukraine, Russia confirmed that Ukrainian leadership was trying to quickly clean up any trace of “military and biological programs” that Ukraine was conducting with financial backing from the U.S.
This echoed previous accusations that the Kremlin has made about Ukraine allegedly destroying samples of various pathogens. A spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied the allegations, according to Reuters.
“The Russian narrative that they’ve put out there that the United States is somehow running or facilitating, you know, biological weapons labs in Ukraine and that these labs are going to pose a threat to the – this is of a piece of the Russian playbook here: claim they’re the victims, create a false narrative to try to justify their own aggressive actions,” the U.S. defense official said Wednesday. “It is absurd. It is laughable. It is untrue.”
