MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Head of the Russian Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces Igor Kirillov has said the US tested drugs that haven’t been approved in the US and Canada on Ukrainian servicemen.

"We continue to publish information about research that involved Ukrainian military personnel," he said. "I’d like to note that such work is prohibited in the US and is carried out by the defense department outside of the country."

"We have already mentioned the studies that were part of the UP-8 project, which involved more than 4,000 people," Kirillov went on to say. "According to data published in the Bulgarian media, about 20 Ukrainian soldiers died and another 200 were hospitalized during experiments in the Kharkov laboratory alone."

"The documents that were obtained confirm an attempt to subject them to tests of of previously untested medicines <...> that didn’t undergo an approval procedure in the US and Canada," he continued. He said that such unacceptable approaches, with the tacit consent of the US administration, are usual business for large pharmaceutical companies.

"Thus, the Indonesian government in 2010 terminated the activities of the US Navy Medical Center in Jakarta due to numerous violations," Kirillov said. "The work that the Americans carried out at this facility stepped outside of the agreed research program, as they carried out biological sampling and refused to inform the Indonesian government about the results that were achieved."

He noted that the materials they received were used in the interests of the Pentagon-affiliated pharmaceutical company Gilead, which tests its drugs in countries that include Ukraine and Georgia.

"I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that the number of biological laboratories in the US is incomparable with other countries," Kirillov said. "According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, they control 336 laboratories in 30 countries outside the national jurisdiction."

According to Kirillov, the Defense Ministry believes that incoming information makes it necessary to seek clarification from Washington, as part of an international investigation, regarding the true goals pursued by US bio labs.