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US concerned about being caught violating Biological Weapons Convention — Russian envoy

According to Anatoly Antonov, "during the special military operation in Ukraine the Russian Armed Forces discovered multiple facts of an urgent clean-up of traces of the military biological program carried out by Kiev regime"

WASHINGTON, March 9. /TASS/. US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland’s recent remarks point to Washington’s concerns that violations of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention by the US and Ukraine will be confirmed, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said in a statement on Facebook.

"The entire network of biological labs was created on the Ukrainian territory. It includes more than 30 facilities. The contracting authority of the works carried out there is the US Department of Defense. It is the DoD affiliated contractor Black and Veatch that takes part in realization of these projects," he pointed out.

According to the envoy, "during the special military operation in Ukraine the Russian Armed Forces discovered multiple facts of an urgent clean-up of traces of the military biological program carried out by Kiev regime." "The Russian side possesses information on elimination of some most virulent pathogens of plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases," Antonov noted.

"Allegations by the State Department’s representative show that the USA is afraid that these dangerous pathogens stored at the above mentioned facilities will get into the hands of Russian experts. In this case, the violation by Ukraine and the United States of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons will be confirmed," the Russian ambassador emphasized. "It makes you wonder how Washington will react to today's accusation from the PRC that the Pentagon has deployed 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries? Why are these dangerous objects created abroad? We are waiting for an honest and direct answer," Antonov added.

Nuland said at a US Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday that there were "biological research facilities" in Ukraine and Washington was concerned that Russian forces might gain control of them.

Earlier, Chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Igor Kirillov said that a network of more than 30 biological laboratories had been set up in Ukraine at the request of the US Department of Defense’s Threat Reduction Agency. According to him, on February 24, the laboratories received instructions from the Ukrainian Health Ministry to dispose of all the biological agents they had. Kirillov stressed that the instructions implied the collections’ total and irreversible elimination, because apparently, everything necessary for the further implementation of the military biological program had been taken out of Ukraine.