Russia demands US, Ukraine provide data on military biological activity

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Russia demanded Thursday the United States and Ukraine provide data on military biological activity in laboratories in Ukraine and resolve the issue.

In this regard, Moscow's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova pointed out that Russia may invoke article V of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) for consultations in light of the situation with US laboratories in Ukraine.

Article V stipulates "undertaking to consult bilaterally and multilaterally and cooperate in solving any problems which may arise in relation to the objective, or in the application, of the BWC."

Zakharova said Russia proposed to include information on military biological activities in reporting on biological and toxin weapons.

Illness-spreading research carried out in Ukraine

Earlier, Russia's Defense Ministry Spokesperson Igor Konashenkov stated that for many years, a covert project to research the methods of spreading illnesses to people through bats has been carried out under US direction at a Kharkov lab.

Konashenkov stated that the Russian Defense Ministry is still studying papers acquired from Ukrainian laboratory staff regarding the implementation of military biological projects by the US and its NATO partners on Ukrainian soil.

Konashenkov told reporters that "I want to emphasize that according to the documents, these studies [on the ways of transmitting diseases to humans through bats] have been carried out in Kharkov on a systematic basis and under the direct supervision of specialists from the United States for many years." 

He also stated that the Kharkov State Veterinary Academy studied wild birds as vectors for the transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza as part of the project and that the conditions under which the transfer processes can become unmanageable, cause economic damage, and create food security risks were assessed.

Konashenkov divulged that the Russian Ministry will soon publish additional documentation on the shipment of a large number of human biomaterials from Ukraine to the UK and other European nations.