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Pentagon ordered map of Ukraine’s most dangerous pathogens — Russian military

According to Igor Kirillov, the US Department of Defense’s memorandum concerning the UP-2 project says that the main task of the project in question is to gather information about the molecular composition of the pathogens characteristic of Ukraine and the delivery of strain samples

MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. The Pentagon had ordered works to map Ukraine’s most dangerous pathogens and the mandatory delivery of strain samples to the US, the chief of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection force, Igor Kirillov, said on Friday.

"Please take note of the US Department of Defense’s memorandum concerning the UP-2 project for mapping the most dangerous pathogens in the territory of Ukraine. The document says that the main task of the project in question is to gather information about the molecular composition of the pathogens characteristic of Ukraine and the delivery of strain samples," he said.

Kirillov recalled that a similar memorandum had been prepared under the UP-1 project for studying rickettsia and other diseases spread by arthropods. "The document stressed the need for transferring all collections of especially dangerous pathogens to the central reference laboratory, which facilitated their transportation to the United States," he stated.

Another large-scale project in Ukraine, UP-4, probed into the possibility of spreading especially dangerous infections with migratory birds. "The obtained documents show that from November 2019 to January 2020, 991 biological samples were collected," Kirillov said.

He declared that Russia had evidence about ten such projects (including UP-3, UP-6, UP-8 and UP-10), which envisaged work with pathogens of especially dangerous and economically significant infections - the Crimean-Congo fever, leptospirosis, tick-borne encephalitis and African swine fever.