MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) was involved in US biological programs in Ukraine, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RCBD) Troops, said at a briefing on Wednesday.

According to the general, the White House is establishing a new public agency in an attempt to ease international concerns over its illegal biological activities. The USAMRIID, led by US Army Colonel Constance Jenkins, will play the central role in the latest US military and biological project, Kirillov added. Based on the bioweapons facility at Fort Detrick, near Washington, the USAMRIID has a biolab with the highest biosafety level, BSL-4, at its disposal and is the key component of the Pentagon-led Electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance System (EIDSS).

"Documents obtained in the course of the special military operation show that the institution has been directly involved in efforts to collect dangerous pathogens across the world, test unregistered medicines and run dual-purpose programs on orders from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases [USAMRIID] played a role in US biological programs in Ukraine," Kirillov informed the briefing attendees.

USAMRIID experts were actively involved in projects code-named UP-1 and UP-8, Kirillov added. "These projects studied the possibility of using arthropods to spread rickettsia, the tick-borne encephalitis virus as well as agents of the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and hanta viruses," he specified.

The research institute has been playing an active role in projects in South America, Africa, the South Caucasus and Southeast Asia, using US Naval Research labs and those owned by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), Kirillov concluded.