On September 1, 2021, local time, in Washington, D.C., US President Joe Biden met with Ukrainian President Zelenskiy. The public opinion war between Russia and the United States has become increasingly fierce, and there have been frequent moves around the issue of Ukrainian biological laboratories. Under this international military chess game, there is still a lot of fog. (People's Vision/Photo)
More than two decades have passed since Russia launched a "special military operation" in Ukraine. However, the "scramble" between Russia, the United States and Ukraine is still fermenting.
On March 10, 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry released several documents disclosing that the United States is conducting "biological weapons research" in Ukraine. Among them, including research on "the transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses through migratory birds" and "pathogens such as bacteria and viruses that can be transmitted from bats to humans", have caused a global uproar.
Since Russia's announcement, the US Department of Defense, the CIA, the deputy secretary of state, the White House spokesman, and senators have spoken out and have different attitudes.
On March 11, the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting at Russia's request to discuss U.S. military biological research in Ukraine.
For a long time, the United States also set up a large number of biological laboratories around the world, but its internal information was rarely disclosed to the public.
"Biological laboratories are mainly places where highly pathogenic pathogens are studied, and they are also places where biological weapons are studied." Professor Yang Zhanqiu of the Institute of Virology of the Medical College of Wuhan University told the Southern Weekend reporter that if the bacteria or viruses developed are used in war, they will play a role in killing and injuring the other side, determining the outcome of the war, and even causing a large number of civilian casualties. "Biological weapons are far more harmful than atomic bombs."
"What is the purpose of the United States, which controls 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world, and has also carried out a large number of biological military activities at its fort Detrick base?" At the Foreign Ministry's press conference, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
It is worth noting that at present, the Western media only has a small number of tracking reports. Most of the allies of the United States have remained silent, and only a few countries or organizations have spoken out from the position of the United States.
Why throw up the issue at this time
In the documents released by the Russian Ministry of Defense, many "evidences" of the scandal were listed.
There are certificates of the transfer of biological material from Ukrainian laboratories to Australia and Germany, bat projects, UP-4 migratory bird research projects, and certificates of destruction of evidence from Ukrainian biological laboratories intercepted in Russia.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, commander of the Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces of the Russian Federation Armed Forces, issued a briefing saying that the Russian side received information from multiple sources confirming that under the "leading role" of the US Ministry of Defense, Ukraine is funding military biological research.
"The U.S. P-781 program in Ukraine considers bats as vehicles for potential biological weapons agents." Lieutenant General Kirillov revealed at the press conference that the project includes research on bacterial and viral pathogens that can be transmitted from bats to humans: plague, leptospirosis, brucellosis and filariavirus.
Since 2005, the United States has established a total of 26 biological laboratories in Ukraine. According to satellite images, these laboratories are located in Kharkiv, Lviv, Kiev and other places, and most of them are located in urban communities.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the UP-4 project in which biological laboratories in Kiev, Kharkov and Odessa are involved is mainly to study the possibility of transmitting dangerous infectious diseases through migratory birds, including the H5N1 influenza virus.
"The U.S. Department of Defense is interested in insects that spread dangerous infectious diseases." According to the Russian Defense Ministry, among the more than 140 boxes of bat parasites in the Kharkiv Biological Laboratory in Ukraine, there are fleas, flat lice and so on.
Containers currently containing fleas and ticks have been transferred from the biological laboratory in Kharkiv abroad, as well as a large number of serum samples from various regions of Ukraine belonging entirely to the Slavic community.
Why are these containers being transferred abroad? What is the purpose?
Yang Xiao, a researcher at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, pointed out that this is also one of the key contents of the relevant cooperation between the United States and Ukraine, which requires further transparency and interpretation.
In the face of various "proofs" issued by the Russian Ministry of Defense, many US officials have different attitudes on this.
On March 8, 2022, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Newland said at a hearing held in Congress that Ukraine has biological research facilities and that the United States is working with Ukraine to prevent research materials from falling into the hands of Russian troops. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Haynes also said the United States "is" or "at least has" provided assistance to biological laboratories that exist in Ukraine.
But U.S. State Department spokesman Price stressed at a news conference on March 10 that the United States did not "operate" biological laboratories in Ukraine.
So far, the United States has not responded positively to the question, nor has it put forward other evidence to refute it, but has focused on accusing Russia of spreading "false information."
Han Ling, a military expert, believes that after the end of the Cold War, the United States has quietly conducted biological weapons research under the banner of opposing the expansion of weapons of mass destruction around the world. "This is intolerable to the world."
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement that on February 24, 2022, the day Russia launched a "special military operation", documents obtained from some Ukrainian biological laboratory employees showed that those laboratories "urgently destroyed" pathogens of plague, anthrax, rabbit fever, cholera and other deadly diseases.
Instructions for the urgent destruction of dangerous pathogens, issued by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, are intended to avoid exposing the fact that Ukraine and the United States have violated the Biological Weapons Convention. This international convention prohibits the development, production, stockpiling and requires the destruction of bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons.
Igor Nikulin, a microbiologist and former member of the United Nations Biological Weapons Commission, revealed in an interview with the media that since 2005, the US Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine have begun to "cooperate" to establish biological laboratories in Ukraine.
"U.S. biological weapons testing ground." Igor said.
On February 25, 2022, the website of the Atomic Scientists Bulletin reported that Robert Pope, head of the U.S. "Biological Synergy Program", acknowledged that there was a virus in the Ukrainian laboratory that "caused concern".
It is worth mentioning that in 2016, in the eastern border city of Kharkiv in Ukraine, more than two hundred soldiers were hospitalized for contracting a deadly influenza virus, and more than two dozen of them died. Since then, the virus has continued to spread, and the city of Kharkiv happens to have a biological laboratory set up by the US military.
"The whole world knows this." In the early morning of March 11, 2022, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said through social media that Ukraine has not developed any chemical weapons, as well as other types of weapons of mass destruction.
Many people have pointed out that Zelenskiy directly denied the development of "chemical weapons" rather than "biological weapons".
"At this juncture, Russia disclosed that the United States was involved in research in the Ukrainian biological laboratory for a reason." Yang Xiao believes that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is currently deadlocked, and "the dualism of biological issues is too prominent, making the Us side unable to argue." ”
"Russia's choice to publish evidence during this period is actually to get the United States to take off the mask of 'apologists.'" Han Ling pointed out that the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine is constantly escalating, and the United States stands on the commanding heights of morality and constantly points fingers at Russia. Han Ling further analyzed that Russia's next move will be to throw out more evidence in a targeted manner according to the needs of the game with the United States, so as to facilitate bargaining with the United States.
Aerial photo of Fort Detrick at the U.S. Army Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). (People's Vision/Photo)
The mysterious "Biological Laboratory"
"U.S. biomilitary activities in Ukraine are just the tip of the iceberg." On March 10, 2022, Zhao Lijian revealed at a press conference that the U.S. Department of Defense controls 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world in the name of cooperation to reduce biosecurity risks and strengthen global public health.
Yang Zhanqiu told the Southern Weekend reporter that the biological laboratory is mainly a place to study highly pathogenic pathogens, and the laboratory will be divided into 4 levels according to the harm of pathogens, and the highest level is P4.
"The level is related to the pathogen, and the more pathogenic the pathogen, the higher the level of the laboratory must be studied." Yang Zhanqiu introduced that the pathogens studied by high-level biological laboratories are often very harmful.
In 2015, the Russian Foreign Ministry questioned the Lugar Biological Laboratory on the outskirts of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, publicly stating that "this is a high-standard closed laboratory of the US Army, engaged in extremely dangerous infectious disease research."
The Fort Detrick Biological Laboratory in Maryland, once known as the U.S. government's "darkest experimental center," has had safety incidents such as the bizarre death of employees, the loss of deadly strains, and the leakage of viruses and chemicals.
It is worth noting that in July 2019, the Fort Detrick Laboratory suddenly announced the closure of the laboratory, citing serious accidents in the management of laboratory animals, the specific reasons for which were not announced.
But the subsequent "white lung disease" in the United States made the outside world constantly suspect whether it was related to the Fort Detrick laboratory.
In 2020, Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Medvychuk asked the government to conduct an investigation into the U.S. biological laboratory in Ukraine.
Since the establishment of these laboratories, Ukraine has suffered multiple outbreaks of dangerous diseases that cannot be explained, such as cholera outbreaks in 2011, 2014 and 2015, more than 300 deaths from swine flu in 2016 and hepatitis A outbreaks in at least four cities in 2017, Medvicchuk said.
"It's actually harder for pathogens to leak out of the lab." Yang Zhanqiu said that in the biological laboratory where the safety level is higher, prevention and control is very strict.
However, Yang Zhanqiu also admitted that if the biological laboratory causes a safety accident due to war, "then the possibility of pathogen leakage is very high." ”
"There are more than 330 biological laboratories in the United States around the world, and this is only the public part." Yang Xiao told Southern Weekend that countries like East Asia and Southeast Asia have such cooperation laboratories. "But whether it is offensive biological weapons research or not, the United States can only clarify itself."
The real intention of the United States to set up biological laboratories overseas is highly opaque, which has aroused the doubts and vigilance of many countries. (People's Vision/Photo)
Biological Warfare "Black History"
"The United States is the only country to date that still possesses chemical weapons." Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the international community asked the United States to complete the destruction of the stockpile of chemical weapons as soon as possible, but the United States has overdue twice.
In the 1970s, the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom jointly initiated and signed the Biological Weapons Convention (hereinafter referred to as the "Convention"), which entered into force in March 1975 and was signed by more than 180 countries around the world.
It is a disarmament treaty that effectively prohibits biological and toxin weapons.
But a week after 9/11, there were anthrax bioterrorism attacks in the United States. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Defense announced its withdrawal from the Convention and listed biological weapons as the number one "biological threat", and began to invest a lot of energy in this regard.
In May 2021, the Convention organization, wishing to strengthen the monitoring and enforcement of the Convention, decided to establish a new verification mechanism to ensure that States parties implement their commitment not to study biological weapons. A total of 183 countries voted, with 182 in favour.
Only the United States voted against it.
"It is an indisputable fact that the United States conducts military-related bioengineering research on a global scale." Teng Jianqun, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, said the United States has been opposed to adding verification provisions because of its own interests.
Although the United States claims that the purpose of setting up biological laboratories overseas is to conduct biological monitoring, provide assistance to developing countries, and develop means and methods to defend against biological attacks, its real intentions are highly opaque, which has aroused the doubts and vigilance of many countries.
"The United States has a black history when it comes to using biological warfare." Teng Jianqun said that when the United States was founded, it wanted to seize the territory of indians, and in addition to direct slaughter, it also used the smallpox virus to massacre. "For example, give blankets, pillows, and clothes that are contaminated with the smallpox virus to the local Indians."
In previous public reports, there have also been many mysteries about the "biological warfare" of the U.S. overseas biological laboratories.
According to Xinhua News Agency on May 24, 2021, citizens of Busan, South Korea, continued to hold protests demanding that U.S. forces close biochemical laboratories in busan ports and calling on the United States to withdraw biological weapons from South Korea.
According to the report, the US military has repeatedly transported biological warfare agents to South Korea, and the US military in South Korea has not gone through any South Korean law permission and declaration procedures, which has aroused the anger of the South Korean people.
In September 2018, Gyorgadze, the former director of Georgia's National Security Service, disclosed documents saying that between 2015 and 2016, the Lugar Biological Laboratory in Georgia "used volunteers as laboratory guinea pigs" to test a new deadly toxin, killing 73 volunteers who participated in the test.
"Biotechnology is characterized by its outstanding dual-use nature, which can be used for civilian use or for military use. For example, to study Bacillus anthracis, it can be either to study how to protect against anthrax, or it can be packaged and placed in an aerosol for dissemination. Yang Xiao said that high-level laboratories that conduct research on highly pathogenic pathogens, and are not transparent enough, there is a purposeful risk in this regard.
It is difficult for pathogens to leak out of high-grade biological laboratories. However, if a biological laboratory causes a safety incident due to war, there is a high probability that the pathogen will leak out. (People's Vision/Photo)
It's still foggy
At present, the official website of the US Embassy in Ukraine has deleted the list of biological laboratories that have been published, but some netizens can still access it through the network cache. The labs were named the "BiomeilAtion Reduction Program" and explicitly included high-lethal viruses such as Congo haemorrhagic fever and Hantan.
Many laboratories have names marked "veterinarians."
An analysis of the relevant documents of the Ukrainian Biological Laboratory by the Russian Ministry of Defense found that the United States plans to conduct research on bird, bat and reptile pathogens in Ukraine in 2022, and gradually shifts to the study of the possibility of african swine fever and anthrax viruses in these animals, with the purpose of "establishing a mechanism for the covert spread of deadly viral pathogens."
The U.S. government said the laboratories, which were built "in cooperation" with Ukraine, were built to "prevent the misuse of biological weapons left over from the Soviet era" and to provide "scientific research support" in "public health" to ukrainians by studying high-risk germs.
But it is clear that the international community does not buy into this statement.
According to the British Reuters news agency reported on March 10, the World Health Organization has made a statement, recommending that the "public health laboratories" in Ukraine with "high-risk pathogens" destroy these pathogens to prevent the war from spreading to these laboratories and endangering the health of the public.
On March 11, the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting at Russia's request, and the United States and Russia engaged in a fierce confrontation over the topic of "U.S. military biological programs in Ukraine."
Greenfield, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, said Russia's only purpose in calling for a meeting was to "spread false information." The U.S. side once again pointed out that Ukraine does not have a biological weapons program and does not have similar laboratories supported by the United States.
At the same time, Russian State Duma President Vorodin said that Russia has launched a parliamentary investigation into the activities of biological laboratories in Ukraine, intending to disclose more evidence collected to the international community.
Under all kinds of doubts, the voice of the international community demanding an explanation from the United States has become increasingly strong. The Chinese Foreign Ministry also reiterated its call that the US side should seriously respond to the concerns of the international community in an open, transparent and cooperative manner.
However, the US side has not yet made a positive response to this.
"This incident also gives China a revelation." Li Daguang, an expert on national security issues, said that in accordance with the principle of international surveillance, China must not only continue to strongly call for the cessation of the development of biological weapons, "but also strengthen cooperation and communication with other countries from the perspective of safeguarding world peace." ”
With the continuous fermentation of the incident, the public opinion war between Russia and the United States has become increasingly fierce, and there have been frequent moves around the ukrainian biological laboratory issue. Under this international military chess game, there is still a lot of fog.
(Southern Weekend interns Kong Fanjie and Lin Na also contributed to this article)
Southern Weekend reporter Wang Yaolin