WAR PROPAGANDA: The war forced the USA to relocate its bioweapons from Ukraine

According to the Russian Parliament, by means of the “special military operation” Russia managed to stop the US production of biological weapons in Ukraine, a threat to its national security. In fact, Ukraine never hosted laboratories manufacturing biological weapons.

Propaganda: the USA have stopped producing biological weapons in Ukraine due to the Russian military intervention.

NEWS: “The United States of America were forced to reduce their biomedical activities in Ukraine only due to Russia’s special military operation, according to a report published by the State Duma’s committee investigating the activity of USA’s biolabs in Ukraine. “Due to the special military operation in Ukraine, the United States were forced to reduce and urgently relocate to other countries or regions their equipment, biological samples and anything that might constitute evidence of the dangerous nature of its biological and military activities in Ukraine”. […]

The document also states that the United States have intensified their biomedical activities in ex-Soviet space and have developed universal, genetically-modified biological weapons capable of infecting not just people, but also animals and crops.

The authors of the article thus note that Washington intends to shift the nature of armed conflicts in the future. Therefore, the Russian Parliament committee suggested the launch of negotiations regarding the creation of an international convention combating chemical and biological terrorism at global level […]”

Washington has “surrounded” the Russian Federation with biological weapons, placing dangerous facilities in the People’s Republics of Donestk and Luhansk as well as in the Kherson region”.

NARRATIVE: The “special military operation” forced the USA to relocate its biological weapons produced in Ukraine further away from Russia

Fact: Ukraine never hosted laboratories producing biological weapons, whereas the “special military operation” is a military conquest.

WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: In fact, the report published by the Russian Parliament’s committee investigating the activity of biological laboratories, published on the website of the State Duma, provides no evidence attesting to the existence of laboratories manufacturing weapons of mass destruction on the territory of Ukraine, whereas most of the arguments are taken over from Russian propaganda narratives. The Russian government media describes the report as a great breakthrough and is meant to justify military operations launched in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, showing that Washington allegedly surrounded the Russian Federation with biological weapons placed in the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk as well as in the Kherson region. These are the exact regions where military operations are currently underway.

Whereas a year since the launch of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine the Russian media wrote that the “special military operation” saved Russia from NATO’s invasion and Ukrainian Nazism, now the Kremlin’s act of aggression against Ukraine is justified by invoking the threat of American bioweapons. The false narrative provides a new explanation to Russian audiences as to why the “special military operation” should continue.

There have never been US-funded laboratories manufacturing biological weapons in Ukraine. In 2007, Ukraine joined the Convention on the non-proliferation of biological weapons. In spite of this, in recent years the Russian media has been drawing attention in ex-Soviet states with respect to certain American-Ukrainian joint projects in the field of biological research, without mentioning the fact that biological research is not tantamount to producing weapons. The agreement signed by Ukraine and the USA in this field is described by Russia as an element conducive to manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.

In fact, there are other ex-Soviet countries that have similar agreements in place. Prior to 2012, the USA also cooperated with Russia in this field. The history of this false narrative goes further back in time. In 2020, the narrative was already permeating Russian media, to the extent of which the US Embassy in Kyiv felt compelled to publicly dismiss the existence of any secret American laboratory on the territory of Ukraine.

The State Duma report also hints at the narrative about the citadel under siege, which this time is surrounded by American biological weapons and faces annihilation from the West.

With the launch of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the narrative about WMDs is used to justify Russian shelling. After Moscow deliberately or incidentally destroyed elements of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, the Russian government media would provide explanations, arguing the shelling actually targeted buildings that hosted American biolabs.

Over the course of 2022, Veridica monitored most Russian narratives about biological laboratories on the territory of Ukraine, and noticed these were all fabrications of pro-Kremlin propaganda lacking any sound basis.

For instance, in March 2022, the Russian media wrote that the secret laboratories in Ukraine were synthesizing coronavirus strains. Since the start of the invasion, Kremlin spokespersons said Russia has destroyed American bioweapon labs in Ukraine, whereas in May 2022 another false narrative made headlines, according to which the EU fears the tuberculosis synthesized in NATO labs in Ukraine. In August, biological laboratories were tied to the critical situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. At the time, the Russian media wrote that the USA will cause a nuclear disaster in Ukraine to conceal evidence of their biological weapons laboratories, subsequently writing that all samples have been exterminated.