ASTRAKHAN, April 27. /TASS/. The United States has created a chain of bio-laboratories around the world, including Ukraine, where research into new biological weapons was carried out, the Russian Security Council’s secretary, Nikolay Patrushev, told a conference on security issues in southern Russia. He said evidence to that effect had been obtained in the process of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine.

In accordance with President Vladimir Putin’s instructions, he suggested discussing measures to ensure biological security in Russia’s Southern Federal District. Patrushev stressed that this issue was particularly relevant in a situation where the United States had created its biological laboratories around the world, including some near Russia’s borders. Some of such laboratories were in Ukraine, he said.

"In the course of the special military operation evidence was obtained to the effect US specialists had been using these laboratories to create viruses, bacteria and toxins - in fact, new biological weapons," Patrushev said. "The active phase of creating Pentagon-controlled biological laboratories in Ukraine started in 2014, immediately after the government coup the United States and its Western allies had provoked with the aim of creating a state hostile to our country," Patrushev said.

He stressed that under the United States’ total external control "Ukraine was intensively exploited by the armies of NATO countries and supplied with modern weapons."