US-controlled studies of disease transmission via bats ongoing in Kharkov

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Russian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Igor Konashenkov stated Thursday 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.

Earlier, Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical, and biological defense of the Russian armed forces, reported that Russian forces found 30 biological laboratories in Ukraine, possibly used to develop biological weapons.

Konashenkov previously revealed that Kiev was urgently covering up traces of a military biological program carried out in Ukraine and funded by the Pentagon.

Kirillov revealed that the US Pentagon-funded bio-laboratories in Ukraine developed, among other things, projects for the spread of biological weapons to Russia via bats.

According to Kirillov, in some projects, "bats are considered as carriers of potential biological weapons," adding that research was being conducted near Russian borders, namely in South Caucasus and the Black Sea coast. 

The Russian diplomat confirmed that the US has "already managed to evacuate most of the documentation" from the laboratories in Kiev, Kharkov, and Odessa.

Last Thursday, the US Director of National intelligence Avril Haines said Ukraine operates "about a little over" a dozen biolabs involved in biodefense and public health for which the American government provided biosafety assistance.

"As I understand, Ukraine operates about a little over a dozen essentially bio labs, and what they are involved in is Ukraine’s biodefense and their public health response, and that’s essentially what they are intended to do," Haines told a Senate hearing.

"I think that the US government assistance or at least has in the past provided assistance really in the context of biosafety which is something that we’ve done globally with a variety of different countries," she claimed.