A UN summit is taking place on Friday over the threat of biological weapons use in Ukraine. Russia accuses Washington and Kyiv of producing it. The United States ensures for its part that Moscow wants to use it.
Are we heading towards a war with chemical weapons? This Friday afternoon, a UN Security Council must meet urgently at the request of Russia, which claims that Washington and Kyiv manage laboratories intended to produce biological weapons in Ukraine. Russian Defense Spokesperson Makes Accurate Accusations Saying Americans Are Conducting Experiments “coronavirus on bats” for “create a mechanism for the secret spread of pathogens”.
“Classical Russian technique”
These accusations are nothing but slander for Ukraine and the United States. In a speech Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky denied any development of chemical weapons by his country. American diplomacy had preceded him, speaking of “outright lies” which are not new, conveyed both by Moscow but also by Beijing. In 2018, Russia had already accused the United States of secretly carrying out biological experiments in a laboratory in Georgia, another former Soviet republic which, like Ukraine, aims to join NATO and the European Union.
For Washington, these accusations from the Kremlin do not bode well. “It’s a classic Russian technique to accuse others of what they plan to do themselvessaid during a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday the number 3 of American diplomacy, Victoria Nuland. Ukraine has biological research facilities, and we are indeed now quite worried about the possibility that Russian forces will attempt to take control of them. So we are working with the Ukrainians on ways to prevent these research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they come near them.”
Parallel with Syria
The United States and the United Kingdom also claim that Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine. They do not fail to draw a parallel with Syria, where sarin gas, chlorine and mustard gas were used by Bashar al-Assad’s regime, whose closeness to Vladimir Putin has never been hidden.
The UN nevertheless wanted to be (a little) reassuring on Thursday on the subject. Its spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, says “have no information […] on their future use” in Ukraine. Even so, the World Health Organization (WHO) has advised Ukraine to destroy high-risk pathogens harbored in the country’s public health laboratories in order to avoid “any potential spill” which would spread disease among the population, according to Reuters. The WHO is concerned that in the event of a bombardment, one of them will be damaged and this will lead to a leak.
These laboratories, supported by the WHO, therefore, but also by the EU and the United States, are studying ways to mitigate the threats of dangerous diseases affecting both animals and humans. But in no way have the objective of developing chemical or biological weapons.