Ukrainian Bio-Lab Threatening Russia?

Ukrainian Bio-Lab Threatening Russia?

"[There is likely a] high degree of probability that the United States and its Western allies were producing chemicals for the distinct purpose of selectively attacking] various [groups from within the population of Russia]." 

"[Documents uncovered by the Russian military in Ukraine on 24 February - the day the Russian invasion started] show that the Ministry of Health of Ukraine has set the task of completely destroying bio-agents in laboratories."

"The Pentagon knows that if these documents fall into the hands of Russian experts, then it's highly likely that Ukraine and the United States will be found to have violated the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons."

General Igor Kirillov, head, Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops, Russian Armed Forces

Russian state TV has been showing sites which officials say are being used to develop bioweapons

 

"There are no indications that Ukrainian labs have been involved in any nefarious activity, or any research or development in contravention of the Biological Weapons Convention."

Filippa Lentzos, biosecurity expert, King's College London

 

"[The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens stored at the country's public health labs to prevent] any potential spills [that would spread disease among the population]."  

"[The agency collaborated with Ukrainian public health labs for several years to enhance biosafety and biosecurity and help prevent] accidental or deliberate release of pathogens."  

World Health Organization

 

"These labs publish in openly available literature."

"They collaborate on many public health projects with global partners."

Brett Edwards, senior lecturer, security and public policy, University of Bath

"Devoting considerable sums of money and significant resources to conducting bioweapons research makes no strategic sense for Ukraine given the difficulty in using them in a conflict."  

"Conventional warfare weapons are much easier and more effective to use for countries like Ukraine."                                                                                                      Dan Kaszeta, former US serviceman, expert on defence against biological weapons

The US says it funds work in Ukrainian labs to tackle dangerous diseases  Getty Images

 Back in 1991, several former Soviet bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine underwent conversion by the United States, becoming facilities meant to decommission weapons of mass destruction. For the obvious purpose of preventing them from falling into the possession of those who might wish to use them following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This appears to be the program that has now sparked conspiracy theories, useful to Russian propaganda intent on painting Ukraine and its Western allies with broad, black strokes of threats by whatever means, to Russia.

In 1992 when then-Russian Premier Boris Yeltsin, visited the United Kingdom, at a time when relations between Russia and the West were on a friendly track with signs of warming trust and collegiality, he spoke with members of the Defence Intelligence Staff, telling them that Russian bioweapons scientists were undertaking research into the influence on human genes of chemical substances.

This was echoed years later when Dr.Christopher Davis, serving on the Defence Intelligence Staff spoke of the research as having opened the door to a weapon that could be indiscriminately sprayed, yet it would prove lethal to only "certain people it was designed to find and attack". Russia has first-hand knowledge of the potential of developing biological weapons to target individuals of a distinct ethnic group, since Russia itself developed such weapons in the past.

Scientists are notoriously inquisitive about the nature of things and their interaction; it is what moves science forward, for good and for ill. Laboratories may not be involved directly in formulating bioweapons, but legitimate fears abound with respect to "dual-use" biological research. The type of research whose product could feasibly be used for nefarious purposes, once in the wrong hands.

In 2019, the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University circulated a warning of the possibility that biological weapons could be formulated and produced for the very purpose of targeting a demographic representing a particular ethnic group, based entirely on their DNA. Russia's new claims warning that Ukraine was producing just such weapons, fall directly into the type of claims that follow a typical pattern of disinformation linked to Russian propaganda.

 

Dr. Filippa Lentzos, co-director of the Centre for Science and Security Studies at King's College London, had on an earlier occasion tackled similar claims made by Russia of the existence of a laboratory in Georgia dedicated to a similar purpose, to justify its invasion and conflict with Georgia, another former USSR satellite which was anxious to go its own way of independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Reports in Russian state media in 2018 claimed untested drugs were given to citizens at a lab funded by the U.S. in Georgia.

 

A convoy of pro-Russian troops are seen outside the separatist-controlled town of Volnovakha in the Eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region on Saturday. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

 

Now the very same claims, under very similar circumstances are once again being trotted out to justify Russia's need to invade Ukraine leading to the destruction not of a putative bioweapons laboratory but the entire national infrastructure. When Russia invaded Georgia, it re-possessed the allegiance of two provinces. Moscow has already done that in Ukraine, repeating the very same pattern that the Kremlin never seems to tire of, declaring eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the Donbas to be independent of Ukraine; Russian territory. With Crimea thrown in for good measure.

 

And with Mariupol encircled and battered with artillery and constant shelling, with the bombing of apartment buildings, schools, government offices and hospitals it too is meant to fall into Russian hands to provide a land link between Russia and the Crimean peninsula. A gradual, creeping reclamation of a sovereign geography Moscow claims historically to be part of Greater Russia.

 

A woman puts her head in her hands as she sits on a cot in a shelter, set up for displaced persons fleeing Ukraine, inside a school gymnasium in Przemysl, Poland, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

 

Ukraine crisis: Odessa detainees freed as police HQ attacked

BBC News online -- 4 May 2014

Police appeared to release detainees in an attempt to calm the crowds

 

Pro-Russian activists have attacked the police headquarters in Ukraine's southern city of Odessa, forcing the release of several people held over deadly violence two days ago.

Friday's clashes led to more than 40 deaths. Most victims were pro-Russian separatists killed when the building they were in caught fire.

Ukraine's interim PM has accused police of failing to prevent the violence.
He was speaking as Ukrainian troops encircled Sloviansk in the east.

The army operation is trying to wrest control from separatists who have taken over a government buildings in a number of towns.

The initially peaceful rally in Odessa on Sunday by hundreds of pro-Russians turned violent as protesters - some wearing masks and carrying improvised weapons - broke windows and forced the gates. 

A number of those detained on Friday were then released by the police, apparently in an attempt to pacify the crowds. There were chants of "Russia, Russia" and "Russians won't abandon their own".

The Daily Telegraph's Roland Oliphant, at the scene, said Ukrainian flags had been pulled down and replaced with the Odessa city flag as tempers flared. Protesters used a lorry to force their way into the police compound.

Reuters news agency quoted police as saying 30 people had been freed.

Protesters broke windows and doors of the police building in Odessa

The clashes broke out after hundreds of protesters called for the release of people detained on Friday

 

Odessa had been observing a day of mourning for those killed on Friday, when running street battles involving petrol bombs led to a fire breaking out on the third floor of a trade union building.

Dozens of pro-Russian activists had barricaded themselves inside. While some were rescued, 38 people either burned, suffocated or jumped to their deaths.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk: "These security forces [in Odessa] are inefficient and violated the law"

Moscow and Kiev have blamed each other's supporters for the fire.
On Sunday, many visited the burned out trade union building, which now has a large Russian flag draped on one wall, to pay tribute.

Interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who has travelled to Odessa, has ordered a full investigation into what happened, saying the authorities did "nothing to stop this crackdown", and were "inefficient and they violated the law".

He told a news conference that all the senior police in the city had been fired and would be replaced.

Odessa

• City founded in 1794 by Empress Catherine the Great
• Population: 1m
• Ukraine's third largest city
• Hosts Ukrainian naval base
• Population: Ukrainian 62% ethnic Russian 29%

But he said the unrest was "part of a plan fomented by Russia to destroy Ukraine".

"Russia's aim was to repeat in Odessa what is happening in the east of the country," where pro-Russian forces have taken control of government buildings in a number of towns, he said.

Mr Yatsenyuk insisted Kiev had not lost control entirely, saying much would depend on whether local populations "support peace and stability or whether they support those who are sponsored by Russian".