Why nobody believes the Kremlin’s bioweapons claims
The Kremlin continues to spread false claims and disinformation about bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine, even after numerous experts, including scientists from Russia, have called the claims “manifestly false”.
Among Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most outlandish claims is: Ukraine hosts US-backed biological weapons laboratories. In some tales, migratory birds, even mosquitoes, threaten to unleash biological weapons on Russia.
Putin has used these and other false narratives as a pretext for his unjustified war.
Hundreds of Russian scientists, including many who remain in Russia, have called the bioweapons lab’s claims “pure fiction” and the evidence the Russian media has offered to support them “manifestly false.”
“We demand that the false, absolutely baseless and hate-inciting claims about supposedly found evidence of biological weapons development in Ukrainian laboratories be stopped,” Russian biologist Eugene Levitin said in a letter co-signed by hundreds of Russian scientists and sent to became Russian media shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion of the Kremlin in February 2022.
Consistently refuted
The Kremlin and its ministers have repeatedly made their false claims about biological weapons laboratories before the UN Security Council. The UN always refutes these claims.
“The United Nations is not aware of any such bioweapons programs,” said Izumi Nakamitsu, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, on March 11, 2022. UN officials said so again in May 2022 and again in October 2022.
The European Union lists the bioweapons lab claim among 12 myths the Kremlin has been spreading in “a constant stream of disinformation” to pave the way for its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Other myths are:
- All of Europe supported Nazi Germany’s invasion of Russia during World War II.
- Russia’s military is waging a holy war against Satanists in Ukraine.
- Ukraine is not a real country.
“Pro-Kremlin disinformation seeks to blur the line between biological weapons and biological research, inciting fear while discrediting Ukraine,” says the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic arm, on its EU vs. Disinfo website.
“Moscow continues to disseminate false information about biological weapons without providing credible evidence,” the State Department’s Global Engagement Center said in a new report.
peaceful research
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and international partners worked to reduce the threats from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons left in the Soviet Union’s successor states, including Russia.
These efforts aimed to eliminate poorly secured ordnance in accordance with international agreements to prevent it from posing a serious threat to international security.
Today, the United States works with international partners through peaceful international cooperation and assistance to enhance capacities to detect, prepare for, and respond to disease outbreaks and other biological threats.
Meanwhile, Putin’s war has risked the release of dangerous materials in Ukraine. In February 2022, Kremlin forces seized Chernobyl, the site of an April 1986 nuclear disaster, and took hostage members and employees of the Ukrainian National Guard who run the facility where spent fuel and other radioactive materials are still handled.
According to the Bioweapons Disinformation Monitor, the Kremlin’s ongoing complaints to the UN about bioweapons laboratories seek to divert attention from its unprovoked invasion and risk undermining vital public health research.
“Based on the Russian evidence presented to date, neither the United Nations, independent media, nor independent experts have concluded that there is any evidence that Ukraine’s biological activities and its public health laboratories support anything other than peaceful purposes.” , according to the Bioweapons Disinformation Monitor, a partnership of King’s College London and the Canadian government.
