From Strategic Stability

Report # 103. New facts on the U.S. military biolabs in Ukraine
July 17, 2022

1. The Pentagon refused to answer at least five specific questions

On July 16, 2022 the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation announced new facts related to the military-biological activity of the USA and its allies in various regions of the world, including Ukraine.
Russia has previously spoken about the experiments held by the employees of a laboratory in Merefa on the patients of a psychiatric clinic in Kharkov since 2019 to 2021. It has been noted that one of the organisers of this illegal activity was a US citizen Linda Oporto Al-Haroun.
The documents received during the special military operation have revealed that this kind of investigations has been carried out in Ukraine at least since 2011 and Al-Haroun repeatedly visited the branch of the Merefa laboratory built with funds of the Pentagon in Sorokovka, Kharkov region.
Despite the fact that this installation is provided with underground storage facilities and powerful ventilation systems, it is officially considered a company that produces food additives. At the same time, the site of the company bears clear signs of fictitiousness, while the equipment of the branch has been transported to the western regions of Ukraine under control of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).
It confirms Russia’s concerns about the numerous violations of the international humanitarian law in Ukraine that are also defined by the Nuremberg Code and the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association. They include: the voluntary consent of an individual to participate in an experiment; informing about the investigation to be carried out; prevention of excessive physical and mental suffering during an experiment, as well as tortures, inhumane or degrading treatment.
According to the available information, highly active neuropeptides were tested on socially vulnerable citizens of Ukraine that caused irreversible damage to the central nervous system. This is a clear violation of the international treaties related to human rights.
Russia has already mentioned the role of the Scientific-Technological Centre of Ukraine (STCU) in the military-biological programme of the USA in Ukraine.
The Russian MoD focused on the P-268 project. The National University named after Taras Shevchenko in Kiev and the Colorado State University were involved in its implementation.
Note STCU Executive Director Andrew Hood’s appeal to the U.S. Department of State to organise researches within the project. He states that ‘…more than 30% of the participants are former scientists experienced in developing weapons of mass destruction…’.
The objective of the project is to study viruses capable of infecting Aedes mosquitoes. According to the terms of reference, the viral preparation was produced by the institute in Kiev and delivered to the USA for aerobiological studies.
The interest of the American clients in mosquitoes of this species that are vectors of transmissible infections such as dengue fever, Zika and yellow fever is not accidental.
During the last major outbreak of yellow fever in Africa (in 2013), there were 170 thousand cases of the severe form of this disease, including 60 thousand that resulted in death.
Everyone remembers the smallpox virus contamination of blankets for Native Americans, the deliberate infection with the syphilis pathogen by Guatemalan citizens is less discussed while this fact has been admitted by the U.S. President Barack Obama. The use of pesticides during the Vietnam War is even less remembered, but the history of deliberate outbreaks in Cuba in the 1970s and 1980s is completely suppressed. At the same time, the use of Aedes mosquitoes as biological weapons, exactly the same ones operated by the U.S. military department, is recorded in the class action suit of Cuban citizens against the U.S. government and was submitted to the member States of the Biological Weapons Convention.
The class action notes that the 1981 dengue epidemic in Cuba that contaminated 345 thousand people and resulted in the death of 158 persons was the result of the spread of the second dengue virus serotype that had not previously been recorded in the Caribbean and had clear signs of a deliberate nature. Thus, the time of the attack (late January) was chosen in consideration of biological features of the life cycle of mosquito vectors and was optimal for the subsequent development of the epidemic process. In addition, the only place on the island where no cases have been reported was the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo due to pre-vaccination of soldiers against the dengue virus type 2.
An artificial outbreak of another viral disease, African swine fever (ASF), occurred in Cuba in 1971. During the epizootic, 500 thousand animals were eliminated and the country suffered a significant economic damage. Although no cases of ASF have been previously reported in the American continent nor in the Western Hemisphere in general, it was Cuba where the disease has appeared.
Former FBI official William Turner introduced some clarity to this issue by telling the Newsday that the CIA delivered a container of ASF agent from Fort Gulick in Panama and transferred it off the coast of Cuba to a fishing vessel. He precisely indicated the farm where this pathogen was introduced.
Since 1980 to 1982, the Cuban leadership reported numerous unusual outbreaks of viral infections of economically important crops (sugar cane and tobacco) that appeared in different regions of the country and were not related to each other.
Yet these facts are only part of the U.S. military-biological dossier, while their investigation is ignored by the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
Despite the assurances of the United States that the biological research in Ukraine is carried out exclusively in the field of civilian healthcare, there are documents that confirm the direct cooperation between the military departments of these countries.
Russia has drawn attention to the Notice of Inclusion of Laboratories of the Central Sanitary and Epidemiological Department of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine in the Biological Threat Reduction Program. It notes that ‘…the program enables cooperation between the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and the U.S. Department of Defence, as well as creates legal principles for its further expansion…’.
Since 2015 that was the beginning of large-scale financing of Ukrainian projects by the Pentagon, numerous cases of infectious diseases have been recorded among servicemen and residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics.
According to the report of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), ‘…in 2016, the tularaemia morbidity increased 9.5 times in comparison with 2007. There have been also noted distinctive features in the structure of morbidity, including an increase in the number of servicemen among the contaminated people…’.
Here is a list of tularemia cases in the DPR.
For security reasons, we do not reveal their personal data, this information has been sent to the Investigative Committee of Russia.
The Russian MoD reminded that NATO guidance documents (Guidelines for the Assessment of Radiation, Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Casualties) consider tularaemia as one of the prioritised biological agents. This is the agent that was used in the military exercises of the alliance at the training grounds in Sweden, with official confirmation in 2012.

The MoD notes that there have been several dozen outbreaks of hepatitis A since 2017 until now in 12 regions of Ukraine where biological facilities controlled by the Pentagon are located and have been in operation. More than 10 thousand people have resulted contaminated, and in most cases the cause of the disease has not been not identified.

Analysis of documents on the activities of the Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in Ukraine implies that one of the prioritized tasks of DTRA is to train field epidemiologists. Within this training course, the U.S. side has actively been introducing its own standards for diagnosing infectious diseases that do not correspond to current public healthcare problems.
The Russian MoD reminded that in 2015, the World Health Organisation declared Ukraine a country with a high risk of polio outbreak and the fight against this particularly dangerous disease is an obvious priority.
In this context, the attention is to be drawn to the response of the Project Manager at DTRA office in Ukraine Brendt Siegel to the regional representative of the World Health Organisation. It states that the biological threat reduction program implemented in Ukraine ‘…does not suppose studies of such diseases as poliomyelitis…’. The arisen question is: what diseases relevant to Ukraine are mentioned?
After the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, the United States developed and implemented a plan to evacuate the Ukrainian citizens who were involved in the biomonitoring system in order to ‘…prevent a leak of sensitive information…’. This raises additional questions about the operation of the abovementioned system and its real purposes.
The Russian MoD has already noted that Hunter Biden was instrumental in creating the financial opportunity to work with pathogens in Ukraine by securing funds for Black & Veach and Metabiotics companies.
The published correspondence of Biden with the administration of the Rosemont Seneca Investment Fund shows the use of administrative resources and blatant lobbying of Metabiota’s interests in U.S. government.
Managing Director John Delosch asks Hunter Biden: ‘…Is there anyone we can call in Washington to get an idea of how seriously Metabiotics is being considered by various government agencies?’
This kind of wording raises the question of the personal financial interest of Biden and other co-founders of Rosemont Seneca in the implementation of the Pentagon’s military-biological programme in Ukraine, as well as the presence of a corrupt component.
The apparent lack of investment appeal of projects aimed to reconstruct Ukrainian biolaboratories raises doubts about the transparency of ongoing financial activities.
In addition, funding from non-State sources such as the Biden Foundation, allows the Pentagon not to report to the Senate Budget Committee on the objectives and results of bioweapons research in Ukraine, hiding them from the public thereby.
The analysed documents of the investment agencies subordinated to Biden do not contain any information about payments to beneficiaries and distribution of dividends. It indicates the concealment of profits with high probability and is a sign of illegal payment schemes and tax evasion that is a serious violation of the U.S. law.

In addition, the Russian MoD draw attention to the fact that on June 9, 2022 the Pentagon website published an official statement about U.S. biological activities in the post-Soviet countries. The U.S. administration admits the funding of 46 Ukrainian biolaboratories and the relations between the U.S. Department of Defence and the Scientific-Technological Centre of Ukraine (STCU).

At the same time, it reflects the peculiarities of the implementation of the Nunn-Lugar joint threat reduction programme in the post-Soviet countries, one of the purposes of which was the involvement of ‘…thousands of former Soviet scientists specialised in biological weapons…’ allegedly to ‘…exclude the possibility of their cooperation with terrorist groups…’.
This kind of attempt of the U.S. administration to whitewash its tarnished reputation turned out to be a ‘prosecutor’s dream’: the document cites facts of the Pentagon’s military-biological activities in Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union, as well as indicates the accomplices of the American military department: the State Department and the U.S. Department of Energy.
However, the ‘clarifications’ provided by the USA do not answer the questions Russia has posed:
1) Why was the work commissioned by the Pentagon, while its subject matter did not correspond to the current problems of public healthcare in Ukraine?
2) What was the purpose of the participation of U.S. military officials in biological research in Ukraine, while the work was carried out under conditions of secrecy with restricted access of Ukrainian professionals to information and facilities?
3) Why were strains of pathogenic microorganisms, potential agents of biological weapons, and biomaterials of Ukrainian citizens exported from the country without clearly declared purposes?
4) Why do the U.S. and Ukraine obscure the military-biological cooperation in international reports under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), while the U.S. has been blocking the development of its verification mechanism since 2001?
5) Why are U.S. officials, including Under Secretary of State V.Nuland, so concerned about the possibility of the activities held by the U.S. Defence Department in Ukraine and the materials in the biolaboratories taken over by Russian specialists?

Thus, the situation presented in the Pentagon statement is just a screen under the guise of which the United States carries out its activities in circumvention of international agreements and continues to build up its military-biological capabilities. At the same time, Ukraine is assigned for playing the role of a testing ground, collecting biological materials and studying the specifics of the spread of infectious diseases.

Comment: It is very strange to see some articles published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists are insisting that the USA never had such military biolabs in Ukraine, though Victoria Nuland has confirmed them.

2. Barbaric AFU still use civilians as human shields

Russian MoD continues to carefully record numerous crimes committed by the Kiev regime against civilians, as well as the use of educational institutions and residential buildings by Ukrainian nationalist groups for military purposes:
a) in Soledar, Donetsk People’s Republic, in the school №14 (Krasnoflotskaya Street), the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have deployed their strongpoint, a munitions depot in the basement and heavy armament at the adjacent territory;
b) in Kharkov, at the lower and upper floors, as well as on the roofs of residential buildings (Pushkinskaya Street), Ukrainian armed groups have deployed large-calibre machine guns and multiple rocket launcher system (MLRS) crews, as well as munitions depots. At the same time, residents are forbidden to leave their flats, while any attempts of civilians to evacuate to safe areas are severely suppressed;
c) in Odessa, in the school №100 (Vernenskaya Street), AFU units have deployed armoured equipment, heavy artillery and MRLS, observation posts have been deployed along the perimeter of the educational entity, the approaches to the buildings are mined, but the local population has intentionally been left uninformed about it;
d) in Slavyansk, Donetsk People’s Republic, in the social orphanage ‘Sails of the Hope’ (Serafimovicha Street), militants of nationalist groups have deployed barracks and a strongpoint, while preschool teachers and children are retained in the basement as a human shield.

These acts committed by Ukrainian authorities show again their inhumane treatment to the lives of innocent Ukrainian citizens and total disregard to all moral norms and principles of the international humanitarian law.

It occurs with the tacit consent of the collective West that continues turning a blind eye to the numerous war crimes of the Kiev regime.
In Poltavka, Zaporozhye Region, militants of Ukrainian armed groups have mined the motorway bridge over Yanchur river for exploding it and accusing Russian Armed Forces of allegedly indiscriminate attacks at transport infrastructure facilities with wide coverage by Ukrainian and western mass media, in accordance with the well practiced scenario.
Russian MoD emphasized again that Russian Armed Forces and military units of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics do not launch attacks at civilian infrastructure facilities, treat the civilian population with high humanity and provide it with comprehensive assistance and support during the special military operation.

3. Barbaric AFU still kill civilians and destroy peaceful cities in Donbass

During last 24 hours AFU sponsored and weaponized by the USA and NATO continued to shell residential areas in Donbass. During this time frame AFU fired 441 shells in 17 population areas in Donbass.
In the morning on July 17 Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) announced the following data:
08:50 Two people died as a result of the night shelling of Alchevsk in the LPR from the HIMARS MLRS by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the head of the city, Albert Apshev, said.
08:02 Kyiv security forces fired on the territory in the area of ​​​​responsibility of the LPR twice over the past day. This was reported by the representative office of the Republic in the JCCC. From the side of the armed formations of Ukraine, two attacks were recorded on the settlements of Skargovka and Alchevsk using American MLRS M142 HIMARS (three missiles)
04:59 The strongest explosions in Nikolaev. Residents report massive strikes in the area of ​​Salt, Kazarsky and Ternovka. According to preliminary data, one of the goals was a social facility in which the fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are located.
07:00 Summary of the LPR Representation in the JCCC for the past 24 hours, July 16. From the side of the armed formations of Ukraine, 2 shellings were recorded on the settlement Skargovka and Alchevsk using American MLRS M142 HIMARS (3 missiles). Additional information about the victims and damage is being specified. Representation of the LPR in the JCCC.
04:34 Air defense again worked over Luhansk, at least 6 anti-aircraft missiles were fired to intercept air targets, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports. There are no signs of falling debris and destruction on the ground.
0:08 A civilian in Alchevsk was injured as a result of shelling from the U.S.MLRS HIMARS, undertaken by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, TASS reports with reference to the mayor of the city Albert Apshev.

4. Zaporozhye Administration Council calls on Zelensky to withdraw Ukrainian troops from the region

Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main Council of the Administration of the Zaporozhye Region, called on the Kyiv authorities to stop the occupation of the regional center and withdraw their troops. “Zaporozhye will be liberated. <…> A plan is being developed so that the liberation of the city takes place with minimal destruction of infrastructure, despite the fact that Zelensky’s militants have mined bridges and other assets. We urge Zelensky to give the order to withdraw his troops and end the occupation of the city,” Rogov told RIA Novosti.
According to his statement, the population of the rest of the region “waits for liberation and asks to be delivered from the occupation of Ukrainian nationalists.” Rogov claims that militants, “policemen” and the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) are now conducting “mass raids” in the city.
At the moment, approximately 70 percent of the territory of the region is under the control of allied forces. At the same time, the Ukrainian army is stationed in the regional center – the city of Zaporozhye.