Press release on the Russian Federation’s initiative at the UN Security Council on investigating US military biological activities in Ukraine

Over the past years, the Russian Federation has more than once raised the issue of the military biological activities conducted by the Pentagon and agencies within its jurisdictions in laboratories located far away from the United States on the Russian border in the post-Soviet countries. These activities are coordinated by the Pentagon’s Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and implemented by private contractor companies such as Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp., CH2M Hill and Metabiota. Such activities of the US military on territories adjacent to Russia have a direct effect on biological security of the Russian Federation.

Evidence and materials acquired during the special military operation have revealed the true nature of US military biological activities in Ukraine. The analysis of these materials has shown that the United States and Ukraine violated the provisions of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (Biological Weapons Convention or BWC).

Under the 2005 Agreement between the US Department of Defence and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine Concerning Cooperation in the Area of Prevention of Proliferation of Technology, Pathogens and Expertise that could be Used in the Development of Biological Weapons, the Pentagon’s assistance to Ukraine’s Ministry of Health may include “cooperative biological research, biological threat agent detection and response” with regard to “dangerous pathogens located at the facilities in Ukraine” (Article III). Under Article IV, pathogens are to be stored at designated laboratories that receive the US Department of Defence assistance, the copies of dangerous pathogen strains collected in Ukraine are to be transferred to the United States, and data generated by the infectious disease surveillance network are to be shared with the United States. According to Article VII, the results of cooperative work under this Agreement and information developed as a result of its implementation shall be considered as “sensitive” or “restricted information.” However, Article V reads that the US Department of Defence representatives shall have the right to participate in all activities at facilities in Ukraine pursuant to the terms of that Agreement.

The participation of the Pentagon in financing military biological activities in Ukraine is reflected in the 2018 plan on providing technical assistance to certain recipients of the Defence Ministry of Ukraine under the 2005 Agreement. The beneficiaries of the funds are the Ukrainian Defence Ministry laboratories in Kiev, Lvov, Odessa and Kharkov. The contractor is Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp. By 2020, the number of laboratories in Ukraine involved in the projects financed by the DTRA and Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp. increased to 30.

The scale and goals of military biological activities become clear from a report on the inspection of the collection of microorganism strains at the Mechnikov Anti-Plague Research Institute of the Ukrainian Health Ministry in Odessa. According to the report, the institute had in its storage 422 units of cholera causative agents and 32 units of anthrax causative agents. It is notable that the institute had a large number of test tubes containing the same reference strain of different passage. In light of the absence of large-scale outbreaks of these diseases in Ukraine over the past years, the range and accumulated amounts of biological agents put in question their designated use for preventive, protective or any other peaceful purposes.

The list of pathogens studied at the institute does not reflect the current healthcare issues in Ukraine as set out in the documents of the World Health Organisation (measles, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis and other socially significant infectious diseases) but includes the causative agents of especially dangerous infections, which are potential biological warfare agents.

The list of documents at our disposal incudes the descriptions of projects UP-4, Flu-Flyway and P-781, which studied the potential spread of dangerous infections by migratory birds (such as highly pathogenic influenza and the Newcastle disease) and bats (including those that would transmit the plague, leptospirosis, brucellosis, coronaviruses and filoviruses to humans), which can be regarded as the carriers of viruses. The spatial range of these projects included not only the Ukrainian regions that border Russia but also the territory of Russia.

In addition, on March 9, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation discovered in the Kherson region three unmanned aerial vehicles outfitted with 30-litre containers and equipment that can be used to spray bioagents. Ten more such UAVs were found near the town of Kakhovka in late April. These facts take on particular importance amid Ukraine’s confirmed inquiry to the Bayraktar UAV manufacturing company about the maximum payload of the Bayraktar Akinci UAV (flight range up to 300 km) and an option to outfit it with an aerosol generating system with a capacity of over 20 litres.

Meanwhile, the question about US patent No. 8967029-B1 dated March 3, 2015, remains unanswered. It was issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office for toxic mosquito aerial release UAV, i.e., equipment (product) that can be used as a technical vehicle for biological weapon delivery and use, namely biological and immunobiological agents, bacteria, and viruses (including highly contagious ones) that can destroy the entire enemy personnel.

According to the specification, the UAV can transport a container with a large number of infection-carrying mosquitoes to a given area and release them. The mosquitoes bite and infect the people with pathogens of particularly dangerous diseases. The specification emphasises the fact that an infected soldier will not be able to carry out assignments, which is why the disease can be a more valuable warfare tool than most modern weapons and military equipment. It is indicated that infecting the enemy military personnel would have a significant military effect.

Under US law, a US patent cannot be granted without a comprehensive description of the “actual machine.” So, it can be inferred that the container as a bioagent delivery means has been developed and can be quickly produced.

The reports provided by Ukraine annually as part of the BTWC's confidence-building measures, which were created by the participating states in order to prevent or reduce the occurrence of “ambiguities, doubts and suspicions,” do not mention information about ongoing programmes and projects that have been implemented since 2016 (including UP-4, Flu-Flyway and P-781), or funding from foreign military agencies, which raises the question of violation of political obligations regarding transmission of information about confidence-building measures adopted by the BTWC member states. The US reports don’t contain any information about the ongoing programmes and projects outside the national territory or their financing, either. Our multiple requests to the American side to provide exhaustive explanations regarding such activities remain unanswered. Such secrecy and disregard of Russia’s concerns on the part of the United States confirms our claims’ validity.

The above circumstances and the military-biological activities carried out in Ukraine are indicative of the fact that the United States and Ukraine are violating the provisions of Articles I and IV of the BTWC.

These assessments are further confirmed by the analytical reports compiled by the Kherson Department of the Security Service of Ukraine dated June 30, 2016 and February 28, 2017. The reports indicate that the Defence Threat Reduction Agency’s programmes carried out through Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp. were designed to establish control over the functioning of the Ukrainian microbiology laboratories for the study of pathogens of infectious diseases that can be used to create or upgrade biological weapons. It is stated that the subordination of projects to a military department of a foreign state created the prerequisites for foreign specialists potentially making their way to regional laboratories and getting information about strategic research.

In this regard, in June 2022, the Russian Federation, through mediation of the BTWC Implementation Support Unit (ISU), attempted, by way of bilateral consultations with the United States and Ukraine, to obtain comprehensive answers to the questions posed by Russia regarding their compliance with the provisions of Articles I and IV of the Convention. However, Washington and Kiev failed to provide the necessary explanations.

At the BTWC Article V Consultative Meeting (Geneva, September 5-9, 2022), the Russian delegation tried as best it could to amend the situation within the BTWC. Our experts provided exhaustive explanations and the necessary comments in response to the questions posed by the participating states. At the same time, the United States and Ukraine were unable to give clear answers to our well-grounded questions. Instead of engaging in a professional dialogue, Western countries and the Ukrainians focused on propaganda, as a result of which our detailed claims remained unanswered and we needed to take additional steps to address them properly.

In this regard, we had to resort to engaging alternative opportunities to encourage the United States and Ukraine to improve the state of affairs. In accordance with Article VI of the BTWC, and in the absence of a constructive response from the United States and Ukraine to our claims, the Russian Federation was left with no choice but to file a complaint with the President of the UN Security Council to launch an international investigation. Our demarche was accompanied by a relevant Security Council draft resolution.

We will push to have our legitimate rights exercised based on the provisions of international law that are enshrined primarily in the UN Charter and the BTWC, which is a fundamental and legally binding instrument in the sphere of security guarantees against the threat of biological weapons.