During Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, documents on the plans of the United States and Ukraine to study especially dangerous pathogens, including the Ebola virus, at the institute in Odessa, turned out to be in the hands of the Russian military. This, according to RIA Novosti, said the head of the troops of radiation, chemical, and biological protection (RHBZ) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov.
“During a special military operation , documents were obtained that testify to the plans of Metabiota (USA) and the Ukrainian Scientific and Technical Center to study the Ebola virus in Ukraine. Before you there is a request for funding by the American side of measures to diagnose especially dangerous pathogens in Ukraine, including the Ebola virus,” Kirillov said at a briefing.
He added that “such requests are part of the US strategy” to move high-risk work with dangerous pathogens to the territory of third countries.
The general added that the research was planned to be carried out on the basis of the Mechnikov Anti-Plague Institute in Odessa. According to him, the main goal of this activity was to obtain highly virulent variants of the virus from the sick and the dead, as well as the export of strains to the United States.
“Given that the disease is not endemic and, moreover, has never been recorded on the territory of Ukraine, a natural question arises about the need for such studies and the true goals of their conduct,” he said.
Shortly after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine , the Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said that the United States authorities were afraid that data on biological laboratories in Ukraine would fall into the hands of experts from Russia.
Then the Russian Ministry of Defense of Russia published data that showed that specialists from the United States were studying the possibility of spreading pathogens using migratory birds, and also, possibly, were working on the creation of ethnically specific infections – diseases that affect members of a certain people.
For its part, the US Department of Defense stated that over the past 20 years it has funded 46 biological laboratories in Ukraine . The Pentagon at the same time argued that the cooperation was peaceful and related to projects in the field of medicine and agriculture.
