JAKARTA - Moscow believes Washington needs to inform the international community about the military biological program implemented in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a press statement.
"We confirm that the facts revealed during Russia's special military operations in Ukraine demonstrate the efforts of the Kiev regime to quickly cover up the traces of the military's biological program," he said, quoted from TASS March 10.
"This is not about peaceful scientific research, because this program is funded by the US Department of Defense," he added.
"We believe that the US Department of Defense and the US Presidential administration need to inform the international community, doing so officially rather than through their 'thoughts', about the programs implemented in Ukraine," Zakharova stressed.
"Your research, your biological materials, mainly used for military purposes, appeared in Ukraine early on. What were you doing there? It's another continent, you don't share the same borders and you don't have bases," he notes.
The Russian diplomat further stressed that the world needs to know what the US wants to do there, what its goals are, and how much investment has been made in Ukraine's biological activities.
Zakharova continued, Ukrainian biology laboratory employees have provided documents on the emergency extermination of very dangerous pathogens, including the outbreak, anthrax and cholera that occurred on February 24.
"It can be concluded that biological components of weapons are being developed in Ukrainian biolabs located in the vicinity of our borders. The emergency extermination of dangerous pathogens on February 24 is an important step aimed at concealing the fact that Ukraine and the US have violated Article 1 of the Biological and Poison Weapons Convention," the diplomat said. The Russian explained, adding "The question is: how was everything destroyed? And was it really destroyed?"
According to Zakharova, it confirms Russia's complaints with regard to the military and biological activities of the US and its allies in post-Soviet countries.
"To address this complaint, we consider it possible to activate Articles 5 and 6 of the above-mentioned convention, which says that the states parties should hold consultations to resolve any issues related to the objectives of the convention and the implementation of its provisions, as well as cooperate in investigating possible breaches of obligations under the convention."
Washington deliberately continues to undermine talk of control over biological research to make laboratory inspections impossible, Zakharova stressed.
"That was in the spring of 2021, when we demonstrated Washington continued to hinder efforts to resume talks on the relevant protocols even though the special group mandate remained in effect," he said.
Zakharova added, Russia expects common sense to prevail in the US and the country, which is one of the custodians of the Biological Weapons Convention, will make a constructive contribution to strengthening the document instead of hindering its execution.
"However, it is now clear that they (the Americans) intentionally undermined this work, so as not to make it possible to inspect the laboratories and facilities where they carry out research, development and other activities related to biological weapons," he concluded.
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