Deputy Secretary of State Nuland made a statement about biological laboratories on the territory of Ukraine during a speech at a hearing in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate of Congress.
"We are now very concerned that the Russian military may be trying to take control of these biological objects", - Nuland said.
According to Nuland, if any incident involving biological or chemical weapons occurs in Ukraine, the responsibility for this will be borne by the Russian side.
In turn, the representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said that during the course of a special military operation in Ukraine, the facts of an emergency cleansing by Kiev of traces of the military biological program were revealed. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the US Department of Defense was involved in financing this program.
The order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine dated March 6 spoke about the destruction of pathogens in biological laboratories in Poltava and Kharkov. The list included plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases. In total, according to Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Ministry of Defense, there were up to 30 laboratories on the territory of Ukraine fulfilling orders from the US Department of Defense. So, biolaboratories in Lvov were developing plague and anthrax pathogens, in Kharkov and Poltava they worked with diphtheria, dysentery and salmonellosis pathogens. According to the Ministry of Defense, more than 320 containers were destroyed in Lviv alone, in which pathogens of leptospirosis, tularemia, brucellosis and plague were found.
According to Russian sources, the activity of these biological laboratories has led to the uncontrolled growth of especially dangerous infectious diseases. There was an increase in rubella, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and measles. In addition, WHO has declared Ukraine a country at high risk of a polio outbreak.