U.S. Tells Russia: We're Not Developing Biological Weapons In Ukraine

US officials refuted Russia’s false claims made earlier this year of the US developing biological weapons in Ukraine during a meeting of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) last week in Geneva, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, Kylie Atwood reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: At the meeting — which Russia called for — both American and Ukrainian delegations explained the work that the two countries are actually doing together, Price said.

“The US delegation, led by Special Representative Kenneth D. Ward, effectively exposed Russia’s disinformation tactics and dispelled Russia’s spurious allegations seeking to malign peaceful US cooperation with Ukraine,” Price said.

“In the presence of delegations from 89 countries, the US and Ukraine presented a thorough, in-depth series of presentations that strongly refuted Russia’s absurd and false claims of US biological weapons development and bio-labs in Ukraine.”

At the meeting — which Russia called for — both American and Ukrainian delegations explained the work that the two countries are actually doing together, Price said.

“Technical experts from the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations unambiguously explained their cooperation and US assistance related to public health facilities, biosafety, biosecurity, and disease surveillance as part of the broader US Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. The US and Ukraine also highlighted how such activities are consistent with—and further support—the provisions of the BWC, particularly Article X, which promotes cooperation and assistance by States Parties,” Price said.

Russia hurled accusations that Kyiv was developing biological weapons and preparing a chemical attack in March of this year.

At the time, the US called the US's UN Mission spokesperson Olivia Dalton said the move was "exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack."

At the meeting last week, Russia also attempted to get certain delegations to agree to a statement about the convention before it was even over, Price added. They did this by “distributing a proposed “joint statement” to select delegations with its conclusions from the meeting before the US and Ukraine even began our presentations,” Price explained.

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