National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby admitted that the US worked with Ukrainians on “some pandemic prevention research” prior to Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, adding that research facilities had been “safely deactivated.”
Earlier this week, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) released a new batch of information pertaining to the Pentagon's biological programs in Ukraine. The information was obtained in the course of Moscow's special military operation that was launched on February 24, 2022.
Russia's Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RCB) Troops revealed on Monday that in 2022 the US evacuated Ukrainian specialists working on bioweapons to western countries, including the US, Canada and throughout the European Union. The relocation was undertaken in part to prevent Russia from obtaining more information about activities by Ukrainian and US specialists that may be in contravention of international obligations and treaty norms. RCB troops began exposing the extent of the US bioweapons program in Ukraine last spring.
Responding to the latest findings by the Russian MoD, National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby claimed: “There are no bioweapons labs, there is no bio weapons work being done by or with the United States with Ukraine in Ukraine.”
At the same time, however, Kirby noted that the US “had been working with the Ukrainians on some pandemic prevention research,” adding that “all those research facilities were vacated and safely deactivated before” the beginning of the Russian special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify the country.
Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov immediately drew attention to a clear contradiction in Kirby's statement: “If such a program was purely peaceful, then why were the works so promptly curtailed? Why are these issues handled by the military, but not the civilian specialists?” the Russian diplomat asked.
Antonov presumed that the US projects were closed, and the laboratories were deactivated strictly before the special military operation started, because Washington did not want the results of its research to fall into the hands of the Russian military.