Russia has ramped up its allegations about the sprawling network of secretive US-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine, stating that other NATO countries have been involved in the questionable research. Apart from the US, Germany and Poland have taken part in biological research programs on Ukrainian soil, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Force, said on Wednesday.
“Not only the US, but also a number of their NATO allies are carrying out military biological projects on the territory of Ukraine,” he said. “The German leadership launched its national biosafety program independent of Washington back in 2013. Some 12 countries, including Ukraine, are involved in the program.”
The effort involves such leading German scientific institutions as the Robert Koch Institute and the Institute of Microbiology of the German Armed Forces, Kirillov said. According to documents obtained by Moscow, the latter obtained some 3,500 samples of blood serum from people living in 25 regions of Ukraine between 2016 and 2019, the official added.
Poland has been actively involved in such programs as well. Documents show Warsaw has been funding the National Medical University in Ukraine’s western city of Lvov, Kirillov went on. A branch of the university, the Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene, has participated in US military biological projects, he noted.
Moreover, the Polish Institute of Veterinary Medicine has been involved “in studies of epidemiological threats and the spread of the rabies virus in Ukraine,” the official stated. “Notably these studies have been carried out jointly with the American Battelle Institute – one of the key contractors of the Pentagon,” Kirillov added.