DISINFO: Ukrainians infect Europe with antibiotic-resistant diseases possibly linked to US biolabs
SUMMARY
According to the Financial Times, Ukrainian refugees are infecting Europe with an antibiotic-resistant infection.
Besides the case of one Ukrainian soldier treated in a US military hospital in Germany, this outlet noted that the rise in such infections in Europe coincided with the evacuation of Ukrainian military and civilian personnel for treatment in various parts of the continent.
What will Europe say after ruling out the evidence of US tests of biological weapons in Ukraine as “Russian propaganda”? In early May, the head of the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence of the Russian Armed Forces, Igor Kirilov, explained about US biological-military activities, that Russia had access to documents confirming the participation of the US Department of State in studies on microbial resistance to antibiotics. According to Kirilov, 813 microorganisms obtained from 162 patients were studied in four different Ukrainian military hospitals in different parts of the country.
RESPONSE
This is a deliberate distortion of the original Financial Times article, to promote a long-discredited pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about US military biolaboratories in other countries.
The Financial Times article is based on a study by the US Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and describes a case of an anonymous Ukrainian soldier whose infection was “resistant to almost every antibiotic available". As the CDC study explains, “the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has placed extraordinary pressure on medical infrastructure and health delivery services in the region”, leading to “the emergence of multidrug-resistant […] infections during hospitalisation”.
Neither of the original sources suggest a link to alleged US biolaboratories with military purposes in Ukraine, a disinformation narrative debunked over and over again.
Pro-Kremlin media frequently resort to this manipulative technique of quoting sentences from serious publications or journalists and then introducing a distorted message as if it were part of the original story.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that US-developed mosquitoes will infect Russian military with dangerous diseases, that an increase in atypical infections in the EU may be a sign of US military activity, that the US has biological military activity in dozens of countries, or that the transfer of US biolabs from Ukraine to Kazakhstan threatens the entire region.
This disinformation claim was broadcast on the date mentioned above. Due to the EU decisions to temporarily restrict the spread and dissemination of RT, Sputnik and other instruments used to manipulate information and promote disinformation about the invasion of Ukraine inside the EU, access to the link may not work inside the EU.