The conspiracy theory about the existence of American biolabs in Ukraine is “proven” by various, completely incorrect arguments.
The claim that there are biolabs run by the United States in Ukraine has been present in some domestic and foreign media for years. Raskrinkavanje dealt with this claim in the analysis from March 10, 2022, which you can read here. As explained in this analysis, “American biolabs” do not exist in Ukraine.
In its analysis from February 24, 2022, Snopes explains that such allegations stem from a distorted interpretation of the fact that the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the United States Department of Defense signed an agreement in 2005 on cooperation in preventing the proliferation of technologies, pathogens and expertise that could be used in the development of biological weapons. Regarding claims that these laboratories are “American”, Snopes points out the following:
While the US Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program has provided some funds to upgrade biolabs in Ukraine, these facilities are managed by the Ukrainian government in accordance with guidelines established by Ukrainian law.
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There is no evidence to suggest that these laboratories were “installed” by the US military or managed by US forces.
How is the claim “proven”?
One of the arguments that “proves” the claim about the existence of laboratories controlled by the USA is the statement that “the US Embassy confirmed the existence of such laboratories and that they were created on the basis of an agreement between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Pentagon”.
We found the first publication of this claim in our language in the article published on the website In4S on December 8, 2021. The article states:
It has been speculated for years that the American Pentagon is testing biological weapons in laboratories on the territory of Ukraine.
Renat Kuzmin, a former Deputy Supreme Prosecutor of Ukraine and member of the current Verkhovna Rada, spoke openly about American biolabs. It is interesting that on the initiative of Kuzmin and his colleagues, the US Embassy confirmed the existence of such laboratories and that they were created on the basis of an agreement between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Pentagon.
This article published a video from the YouTube channel In4snet, which was presented as a “documentary by Igor Damjanovic”. The 14-minute video was published on December 7, 2021, titled “Ukraine – a biological bomb in the hands of the United States?”. This “documentary” consists of several separate clips and stories, including the statements of Renat Kuzmin. The video repeats the claim about the existence of “American biolabs” in Ukraine, and insinuates that the work of these laboratories caused epidemics of rat-bite fever and cholera in this country.
At 4:30 of the video, it is stated that during hemorrhagic pneumonia (rat-bite fever) epidemic in Ukraine in 2009, 450 people were allegedly infected, while the cholera epidemic occurred on two occasions, in 2011 and 2014. The man signed as “political commentator” Oleksandr Lazarev then claims:
If we draw the foci of epidemics on the map, we will understand that they occur where the laboratories are located.
The video also tells the story of a woman introduced as Tatiana, who gave the interview anonymously because she “does not want to attract the attention of the secret services”. She allegedly suffered from an unknown disease for which medical experts could not tell what it was, and other residents of the building in which she lived allegedly had the same symptoms. It is stated that near the building in which they lived, there was an “American laboratory of the second level of bioprotection”. The video also questions whether Ukraine is the “source” of the Covid-19 disease. No evidence is offered for these and other allegations in the video.
Has the US Embassy confirmed the existence of “American biolabs” in Ukraine?
According to the Russian news agency TASS’ article from April 15, 2020, “the Ukrainian opposition party For Life called on the authorities to examine the work of 15 American military biological laboratories”. As they state, ever since these laboratories allegedly appeared, “outbreaks of dangerous diseases” have been recorded in Ukraine. At the head of this initiative were the President of the Political Council of this party Viktor Medvedchuk, and Renat Kuzmin, a member of Parliament in Ukraine. Medvedchuk and Kuzmin are pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, according to The Washington Post in an article from February 28, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin is Medvedchuk’s godfather, and they are very close in private life.
A platform dedicated to identifying, collecting and disclosing disinformation coming from pro-Russian media, EUvsDisinfo states in a text from April 28, 2020, that the US Embassy in Ukraine responded to the initiative of the mentioned party. The announcement of the embassy is available on its official website from April 22, 2020. According to the statement, the embassy announced that it would address disinformation spreading in Ukraine, reflecting Russian disinformation regarding the strong US-Ukrainian partnership to reduce biological threats”.
Here in Ukraine, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program is working with the Ukrainian government to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security importance in Ukrainian government facilities, while enabling peaceful vaccine research and development. We are also working with our Ukrainian partners to ensure that Ukraine can detect and report epidemics caused by dangerous pathogens before they threaten security or stability.
Therefore, the claim that the US Embassy allegedly confirmed the existence of American biolabs in Ukraine on the initiative of Kuzmin and his colleagues is not valid. In its response to the initiative, the embassy did not state that there were “American biolabs” in Ukraine, but explained some details related to the Biological Threat Reduction Program.
Are epidemics in Ukraine related to laboratories?
There is no evidence that these laboratories are responsible for the outbreak of dangerous diseases in Ukraine. Specifically, in 2009 there was a pandemic of the swine flu virus, H1N1. According to media reports from this country, by December 2, 2009, 445 people had died in Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, as the Kyiv Post states, those people died from “flu and flu-like illnesses”. There is no evidence that the outbreak of this flu epidemic is related to alleged American biolabs.
According to the World Health Organization, Ukraine reported 14 cases of cholera in 2011. Cases have been reported in Mariupol. As stated in the mentioned Raskrinkavanje’s analysis from March 10, 2022, a map was shared on social networks, which was claimed to show “American biolabs” in Ukraine. According to this map, the laboratories are allegedly located in the cities of Odessa, Vinnytsia, Uzhhorod, Kherson, Ternopil, near Crimea and Luhansk, and three in Lviv and Kyiv. Two other possible locations, it is claimed, are the cities of Kharkiv and Mykolaiv. Mariupol, therefore, is not marked as a city where the laboratory is claimed to exist, and it is unclear how the reported cases of cholera could be related to the activities of American biolabs.
An advanced Google search for the claim that the cholera epidemic broke out again in Ukraine in 2014 does not give results that would confirm its authenticity.
Did the Pentagon “perform experiments” on Ukrainian and Georgian soldiers?
On January 30, 2022, an article was published on the website Zvezdane staze, which also presents alleged evidence of the existence of such laboratories. Among other things, the article states:
Well-known Bulgarian investigative journalist Diana Gaitendziyeva published new information related to the activities of American biological laboratories in Ukraine, Georgia and other countries.
The materials available indicate that the Pentagon conducted experiments on 4,400 Ukrainian and 1,000 Georgian soldiers using those laboratories.
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There is no specific information on the content of the experiments in the documents, but an important remark was made: “Serious incidents, including deaths, should be reported within 24 hours. All deaths of study participants suspected or related to research procedures should be reported to draw the attention of the Bioethics Committee of the United States and Ukraine. If we were to speak of a simple study of blood samples, there would be no need for such an explanation”.
Thus, the article claims that, according to documents obtained by investigative journalist Diana Gaytandzhieva, two studies were conducted in which the Pentagon experimented on 4,400 Ukrainian and 1,000 Georgian soldiers. The project in which “experiments” were carried out on Ukrainian soldiers is called UP-8.
Gaytandzhieva published these claims on her blog on January 24, 2022. In her article, she also published documents allegedly related to these projects. The insinuation about the alleged risks of the conducted studies is based on the statement that the documents claim there is an obligation to report any serious incident related to the participants in the study, which may include deaths. Allegedly, as claimed in the mentioned article of the website Zvezdane staze, “if we were to speak about a simple study of blood samples, there would be no need for such an explanation”.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, an independent and non-profit media focused on nuclear risks, climate change and disruptive technology, also wrote about Gaytandzhieva’s claim. As Bulletin points out in an article from February 8, 2022, these claims are part of the Russian disinformation campaign. A US Defense Risk Reduction Agency spokesman spoke about the projects Gaytandzhieva wrote for the Bulletin.
“The UP-8 project was carried out in accordance with all relevant Ukrainian and American regulations on health and safety”, the agency said.
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The agency said that Gaytandzhieva singled out two “standard” clauses in government project documents.
“The issue of mortality is a complete fabrication that it supports using a legal template language from the standard confidentiality form”, the agency said.
“DTRA funding was for laboratory training and analysis conducted by host country staff. Nothing about this program endangered human lives or in any way posed an experiment on humans”.
Therefore, the fact that the information is mentioned in the documents of a project does not indicate that it “experiments” with people. These are standard formulations used in similar documents.
(Authors: Marija Ćosić and Denis Čerkadžić, Raskrinkavanje.ba)
