Russia releases more information on U.S. bio-lab activities in Ukraine
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation released further information on the activities of biological laboratories in Ukraine funded by the United States at a press conference on Thursday.
At the press conference, Chief of the Russian Armed Forces' Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces Igor Kirillov revealed some details of the U.S.' project 3007, a monitoring project on epidemiological and ecological situations of extremely dangerous waterborne diseases in Ukraine.
Ukrainian specialists involved in activities controlled by U.S. researchers consistently collected samples of water from major Ukrainian rivers, including the Dnieper, the Danube and the Dniester, as well as from the North Crimean Canal, to detect the presence of extremely dangerous pathogens, including cholera, typhoid fever and hepatitis A and E, and conclude the possibility of spreading them via waterways, according to Kirillov.
The results of these activities may be used for the creation of hostile biological conditions not only in Russia but in the entire area of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as in Eastern European countries such as Belarus, Moldova and Poland, Kirillov said.
The official also revealed that from 2019 to 2021, American scientists at a laboratory in the town of Merefa (the Kharkiv Region) conducted trials of these extremely hazardous samples on patients at the Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No. 3 in the city of Kharkiv.
Individuals with mental disorders were selected for tests based on their age, ethnicity and immune status, and special forms were recording the results of the round-the-clock monitoring of the patients' conditions. Information was not included in the hospital's database, and the staff of the medical facility signed a non-disclosure statement.
In January of 2022, the operations of the laboratory in Merefa were suspended, and all equipment and biological products were taken to western Ukraine, according to Kirillov.
On March 9, Russian reconnaissance units found three drones furnished with 30-litre capacities and spraying equipment in the Kherson Region.
In January 2022, Ukraine purchased through intermediary companies over 50 drones that can be employed for using biological substances and toxic chemicals.
The United States has allocated over 350 million U.S. dollars in the past few years to the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine that distributed grants for research in the Pentagon's interests, including in the field of biological weapons, Kirillov said.