DISINFO: US using biolabs around the world to create epidemics at will
SUMMARY
The US wants to harness the power of dangerous biological agents and manage artificial epidemics by conducting illegal research in biolabs across the globe. This is particularly evident in Ukraine, where dozens of state and private research institutions are involved in US-sponsored biological activities, including experiments on humans.
RESPONSE
The claim is an attempt to advance the long-discredited pro-Kremlin narrative about US-funded biolaboratories with military purposes in Ukraine and other countries, which pro-Kremlin outlets and Russian authorities continue promoting despite repeated debunking.
Contrary to what this disinformation story claims, there is nothing sinister about Ukraine’s civilian public health laboratories, whose work is indeed public and funded by global institutions. The country has dozens of civilian public health laboratories that work to research and mitigate the threats of dangerous diseases, some of which receive financial and other support from the US, the EU and the World Health Organization (WHO), which pro-Kremlin disinformation falsely portrayed as military sites, deliberately blurring the line between biological weapons and biological research.
Calling for independent investigations, only to attack international bodies when results are negative for the Kremlin, is a frequent modus operandi of Russian authorities, as proven by the cases of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, the downing of the MH17 flight or the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury.
In this case, Russia tried in October 2022 to promote a UN investigation on these accusations, but it failed to gather any support, as members of the Security Council argued that Russia’s allegations lacked any evidence. In fact, Russia’s claims about a US-funded biological weapons programme in Ukraine have been widely refuted -including by the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu and by Russian biologists who examined Moscow’s “proof”.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that Russia presented evidence of US biolabs in Ukraine at the convention on biological weapons, that new evidence of US military-biological activity emerged in Ukraine, that disease outbreaks in Ukraine are linked to the activity of US biolabs, that Zelenskyy ordered the destruction of evidence regarding the development of biological weapons, or that bio-experiments in US labs turned Ukrainian soldiers into ‘most cruel monsters’.
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.