WASHINGTON, June 9. /TASS/. The US supported 46 various civilian laboratories and health care centers in Ukraine over the past 20 years as part of peaceful programs, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
The agency on Thursday published a fact sheet on "US Collaboration With the International Community to Reduce Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Threats in Ukraine, Russia, and Other Countries of the Former Soviet Union."
"The United States has also worked collaboratively to improve Ukraine’s biological safety, security, and disease surveillance for both human and animal health, providing support to 46 peaceful Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and disease diagnostic sites over the last two decades," the fact sheet said. "The collaborative programs have focused on improving public health and agricultural safety measures at the nexus of nonproliferation."
"This work, often conducted in partnership with outside organizations, such as the WHO and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), has resulted in safer and more effective disease surveillance and detection," the document said. "Ukrainian scientists have acted consistent with international best practices and norms in publishing research results, partnering with international colleagues and multilateral organizations, and widely distributing their research and public health findings."
Ukraine has no biological, nuclear or chemical weapons programs, the Pentagon said.
Previously, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said that during the special military operation in Ukraine, Russian forces unearthed evidence pointing to an emergency cleanup by the Kiev regime of traces of a military biological program, carried out in Ukraine and bankrolled by the US Defense Department. According to Konashenkov, staff from these Pentagon-run Ukrainian-based labs revealed the emergency disposal of particularly dangerous pathogens on February 24, namely, the plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases.
US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland on March 9, speaking at a hearing at the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Senate, said that there were facilities in Ukraine that did research in the field of biology and that Washington was trying to prevent them from falling under the control of Russian forces.