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Russia has claimed for years that Ukraine has biological laboratories and says its attack was meant to destroy those labs. The narrative was also included in the disinformation about the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
Russian media narratives: Ukraine produces biological weapons and destroys dams to terrorize the population
The Russian press wrote, long before Ukraine was invaded on a full scale, about the existence of bioweapons laboratories on the territory of that country; moreover, the narrative about biological laboratories (obviously supported by the US) was not only used for Ukraine, but also for other states in the ex-Soviet space , a space that Russia considers to be its exclusive area of interest and security - regardless of what the respective countries think.
After February 24, 2022, the thesis regarding the existence of biological laboratories in Ukraine was promoted more intensively; in March, for example, the Kremlin claimed that 13 such laboratories had been destroyed. The theme was also used by the Russian media to justify the bombing of Ukrainian cities and other actions by the Russian military.
With such biolab narratives, Russia has also targeted audiences that were invaded by false narratives (many initiated by Russian trolls) during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as audiences inclined to believe in conspiracies related to health policies and crises. Thus, Russian propaganda claimed that various viruses and bacteria, including the coronavirus and tuberculosis, were being produced/experimented with in secret laboratories found on Ukrainian territory. These false narratives have been promoted through various channels – online, on social media, in the press, and even through official sources, such as Russian military spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov, who said that in biological laboratories, created and funded by the US in Ukraine, experiments were carried out using the bat coronavirus .
In September 2022, by distorting information carried by the Western media, Russian propaganda tried to convince the public opinion that a former US chief epidemiologist admitted that the American labs in Ukraine were engaged in the production of the coronavirus. This narrative attempted to exploit the speculation – and false narratives – that emerged during the pandemic about the intentional release of the virus, especially since there was also a significant mass of people who believed those theories.
Another product of the said biological labs would have been tuberculosis: pro-Kremlin propaganda wrote that the EU checks all Ukrainian refugees for tuberculosis, which comes from secret NATO laboratories on Ukrainian soil. The medical care provided to Ukrainians in the EU was presented as evidence of the existence of bioweapons labs.
Another narrative related to the larger theme of the labs was that Moscow was able through the "special military operation" to stop the US from producing biological weapons in Ukraine, which were threatening its security. In April 2023 the Russian State Duma published a report praising the Russian military for forcing the US to curtail its biomedical activities in Ukraine. According to a report published by the parliamentary committee investigating the activities of US biological laboratories in Ukraine, Washington “surrounded” the Russian Federation with biological weapons, placing dangerous facilities in the east and south of the country.
False narratives about biological weapons labs in Ukraine were revived after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, as part of Russia's media campaign aimed to promote the idea that the dam was destroyed by Ukraine, which was allegedly coordinated by the West. In a first stage, the destruction of the dam was associated with the use of a weapon of mass destruction. RIA Novosti, for example, wrote that Ukraine has turned into a "terrorist state", recalling the drones that exploded in Moscow, the bombing of the Belgorod region, the explosions in the area of the Crimean bridge and the talks about the use of the dirty bomb by Kyiv. "No military idea, no strategy, everything is done with the aim of destroying, raping and breaking," the Russian journalists explain.
While Ria Novosti emphasized the physical impact of the floods, Russia's main news agency, TASS, drew attention to the risk of infecting the population .
Once the idea of the Ukrainian terrorist attack (with weapons of mass destruction) and the infection of the population were launched, the biological warfare narratives were also reactivated. There were two main ideas - first, that Ukraine allegedly destroyed the Nova Kakhovka dam to hide the traces of the biological laboratories, and second, that following the destruction, viruses from those laboratories contaminated the spilled waters and are now a public health hazard.
It’s basically an old technique of disinformation and manipulation: first a "truth" is established, then that "truth" is used as a background element for other disinformation; In this way, attention is diverted from the initial fake, which is presented as a fact. In the case of the Nova Kakhovka dam, this was the role of the narratives about the Ukrainian biological laboratories as the first "truth" used to explain why the Ukrainians bombed the dam.
The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam was also used to refer to another family of narratives, also related to unconventional/ mass destruction weapons: those regarding the danger of a nuclear incident caused by Ukraine. In the "Nova Kakhovka" version, the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant was to be flooded following the destruction of the dam, which would have led to a nuclear accident.
(Marin Gherman, Cernăuți/Suceava)
Narratives about biological laboratories in Ukraine, promoted in Romania before the Russian army took them over and resumed after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam
In Romania, the narrative regarding the biological laboratories on the territory of Ukraine has been promoted since the beginning of the war. Journalist Iosefina Pascal, heavily promoted before the war by the Kremlin mouthpiece, Sputnik, but also by characters from the media and public space in Romania who over time had promoted messages similar to those of Russian propaganda, stated before the Russian army that Ukrainian cities were attacked in order to eliminate the biological weapons labs.
The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydropower plant, in early June, gave rise to the resumption in the Romanian media space of the false narrative related to biological weapons laboratories on the territory of Ukraine, altered to fit the context. Thus, according to a speech in Parliament by the Senator Diana Sosoaca , taken over by the Romanian press, we learned that the flood resulting from the destruction of the dam "swept away" in its path several Ukrainian bio-terrorist labs and Romania was about to become the victim of a new pandemic produced by pathogens subjected to experiments in those laboratories.
The starting point of the narrative was a statement by the Vice-President of the Russian State Duma, Irina Irovaia, who claimed that the presence of cholera causative agents in the region of Odesa following the damage to the Nova Kakhovka dam, would be related to an American laboratory in the area, where the American army was allegedly conducting experiments related to the hidden effects of cholera and other diseases.
(Cezar Manu, Bucharest)
The Republic of Moldova targeted by allegations regarding biological laboratories on its territories and false narratives about the danger posed by the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam
The Republic of Moldova was also directly targeted, just like Ukraine, by false narratives regarding the existence of biological laboratories on the territory of the country years before Russia’s full-scale invasion. In 2021, for example, Bogdan Tîrdea, promoter of numerous false narratives similar to those issued by the Kremlin and one of the most visible politicians of the main pro-Russian political party, the Party of Socialists, suggested that there was a connection between the Covid-19 pandemic and an alleged American biological lab on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. In the fall of 2022, false information about the opening of four American biological weapons laboratories circulated in the online environment of the Republic of Moldova.
The narratives about the laboratories in Moldova have been directly linked to those about the laboratories in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, when Aleksandr Kalinin, also a pro-Russian politician - but from a smaller party, the Party of Regions, which has the same name as the party of the former pro-Russian president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych – said that the Ukrainians transferred the "biological laboratories" from their territory to that of the Republic of Moldova and that the purpose of the visit to Chisinau on March 6 by the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, would have been to take samples of those weapons.
False narratives about the Nova Kakhovka dam have been spread in the Republic of Moldova also by Sputnik, one of the main tools of Russian propaganda and disinformation for foreign media markets (part of the Russian government's Rossia Segodnia agency). Sputnik has lost steam as a result of measures taken by various governments to limit access to its web pages. And the Sputnik website in the Republic of Moldova was blocked a few days after the start of the Russian war in Ukraine, in February 2022, as instructed by the Intelligence and Security Service, on the grounds that it promoted information that incited hatred and war. The agency, however, immediately launched three other clone portals. In March 2023, SIS blocked five more Sputnik clone sites. In September 2023, the director of Sputnik Moldova, Vitalii Denisov, was declared persona non grata and was expelled from the Republic of Moldova.
Sputnik directly referred to the pollution of the Black Sea, given the familiarity of the Moldovan citizens with its coastline – the Ukrainian part of the coast was a holiday destination for many of them before the outbreak of the war, and also Moldovan tourists go to the Romanian coast or the Bulgarian one. Obviously, Sputnik also resumed the theory about Ukraine being responsible for the destruction of the dam, writing that there are big problems with pollution in the Black Sea after Ukraine blew up the Kakhovka dam, the water being affected by potentially toxic cyanobacteria.
The Russian propaganda press in the Republic of Moldova also wrote that the destruction of the dam by Ukraine caused an ecological disaster in the Black Sea and that the rotavirus was detected in the water in the Odesa area.
(Mariana Vasilache, Chișinău)
Bulgaria: Russian source propaganda about the contamination of the Black Sea on the onset of the tourist season
Bulgaria’s government remained passive and sleep-walked through the Nova Kakhovka destruction. In the comments that eventually followed, the distress around the consequences have been treated by the ruling coalition as pro-Russia propaganda.
The state has largely downplayed potential biological catastrophe following the incident at the Nova Kakhovka Dam. The delayed response from the government on whether there are any consequences for Bulgaria immediately saw criticisms from analysts, activists and concerned citizens, mainly in line that Bulgaria is unprepared to face such disasters.
Still, on June 8, Minister of Environment and Water and former Senior Advisor to the European Climate Foundation Julian Popov – in position since the new government stepped in power in June – ordered an immediate monitoring of the situation. The Ministry reported that the data shows no increased pollution. The Black Sea Basin Directorate in Varna, which stated to be in constant contact with colleagues in Romania and Moldova, stood by the same position. On June 12, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences also said that there are no heightened levels of pollution in the waters around Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.
“The complete silence from the President, the government and Bulgaria’s international representatives on Nova Kakhovka and on the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus, is a sign of extreme irresponsibility”, wrote Krasen Stanchev, an economist and professor at the Sofia University, for Bulgaria’s branch of RFI on June 12. On June 14 newspaper Capital Weekly, quoting prof. Nickolay Valchev of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, predicted that while no immediate danger seems to be in place, the pollution spread would likely be gradual and in low concentration, eventually causing damage: “What is more important is to be aware of the consistency of this pollution – whether we’re talking about radioactive substances or toxic fertilizers, biogenic elements, thermogenic substances or something else”, said Valchev, deeming the pollution in the Bulgarian waters as undoubted, at least in some capacity.
The Nova Kakhovka incident had no consequence on the tourist season on the Bulgarian seaside. On June 28, Minister Julian Popov described the concerns that the waters might be contaminated as Russian-sourced propaganda targeting both Bulgaria and Romania.
On August 18, Minister of Defense and an outspoken pro-Ukraine voice, Todor Tagarev, said that Russia is using every opportunity to destabilize the narratives in Bulgaria and cited the concerns following the Nova Kakhovka incident as such example.
By the same time, a research carried out by NGO “Aktivni potrebiteli” and published on August 17, pointed out that Bulgarian waters in 11 beaches in the South seaside have been contaminated with Escherichia coli 41 times above the norm. According to the research, the war has not been a factor in it but Bulgaria’s own issues with inefficient wastewater treatment. The Ecology Ministry criticized the research and questioned the metrics. Popov again said that there have been no levels detected above the norm, including following the dam incident, noting that “our public is very vulnerable to panic”.
(Svetoslav Todorov, Sofia)
FACT: Biological weapons are prohibited by law in Ukraine, and Kyiv could not possibly be interested in destroying the Nova Kahovka dam
In Ukraine, there were no laboratories for the production of biological weapons financed by Western states. There were, indeed, American-Ukrainian projects in the field of biological research, but similar collaboration agreements were also signed by other post-Soviet states , and until 2012, the USA cooperated even with Russia in this field.
In 2007, Ukraine joined the Convention on the Non-Proliferation of Biological Weapons. There is an agreement between Ukraine and the US, concluded in 2005, according to which the parties will cooperate to prevent the use or production of biological weapons on the territory of Ukraine. It was presented by the Russian media as an element of the production of biological weapons. In 2020, the US embassy in Kyiv reacted to the news, stating that there is no US secret laboratory on the territory of Ukraine. .
Moscow hasn’t come up with any concrete evidence that there were any biological weapons production laboratory in Ukraine, but has used the narrative to justify attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure by the need to destroy them. During these 18 months of war, after Moscow intentionally or accidentally destroyed elements of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, the Russian press would come up with explanations that American biological weapons laboratories that were located in those buildings were actually bombed, including in Mariupol, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson or other localities.
The April 2023 State Duma report contains no evidence, only accusations against Kyiv based on previous Russian military reports. This document also contains elements of the fortress under siege narrative: Russia is surrounded by American biological weapons and threatened by the West.
The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam was presented in the Russian press from the same perspective. Being accused of terrorism, the Ukrainian state is shown as a perpetrator of the genocide against Russian speakers in southern Ukraine. Russia has linked together a number of false narratives, such as Kyiv's plans to produce a radiological bomb, the operation of biological weapons laboratories, the destruction of a dam through terrorist methods and the Nazi politics of Ukrainian political leaders. All are based on the metanarrative of Ukrainian terrorism.
Ever since the fall of 2022, Ukrainian authorities have expressed fear that the Russian Federation could destroy the Nova Kakhovka dam in order to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Kyiv called on the West to put pressure on Russia to avoid such a scenario on Ukrainian territory.
The Russian media have intoxicated the public opinion with a series of false narratives after the destruction of the dam, launched while the two camps were accusing each other of blowing it up. However, an operation by Ukraine that would cause destruction of such magnitude on its own territory would be difficult to justify and explain to its own population. Russian propaganda has often assigned responsibility for its own actions to its adversaries. An operation by Ukraine that would cause destruction of such a magnitude on its own territory would be difficult to justify also in the context of launching a counteroffensive in the south of the country.
At the same time, the best argument against this fake news remains the fact that the pollution caused by the destruction of the Dnieper dam did not produce effects in the Romanian sector of the Black Sea, nor did the cholera epidemic announced by Moscow propaganda break out in Ukraine.
