MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Biological laboratories set up in Ukraine studied ways to spread cholera, typhoid fever and hepatitis through waterways, Chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Igor Kirillov said on Thursday.

"Ukrainian specialists involved in activities controlled by US researchers consistently collected samples of water from major Ukrainian rivers, including the Dnieper, the Danube and the Dniester, as well as from the North Crimean Canal, in order to detect the presence of extremely dangerous pathogens, including cholera, typhoid fever and hepatitis A and E, and draw conclusions about the possibility of spreading them via waterways," he pointed out.

According to Kirillov, the project also involved the evaluation of the damaging power of the collected samples, while the strains were later taken to the US.

The chief of the Russian NBC Protection Troops also stressed that according to the analysis of Ukraine’s water resources map, "the results of these activities may be used for the creation of hostile biological conditions not only in Russia but in the entire area of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as in Eastern European countries such as Belarus, Moldova and Poland."