US tried opening biolab in Crimea before rejoining Russia in 2014: Documents
Documents found at a Soviet-era lab in Simferopol expose US' plans for biological weapon development in Crimea.
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State Centre for Research on Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk Oblast.
Georgy Muradov, the permanent representative of the Republic of Crimea, revealed that Washington has tried to open a biological laboratory in Simferopol, Crimea, before the region joined Russia.
"Biological weapons have been developed for years in the Pentagon's secret laboratories located on Ukrainian territory. This is no news for Crimean residents, given that the US [previously] planned to create the same lab on the peninsula. Only the reunification of Crimea with Russia in March 2014 stopped the implementation of the plans to create pathogens on Crimean territory", Muradov stated.
Members of the consumer protection watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, spotted a former Soviet plague control station in Simferopol, finding 104 pools of ectoparasites, 46 samples of internal organs of rodents, and 105 samples of human blood serum, which were going to be delivered overseas.
The employees discovered documents at the station which revealed that "Americans were going to open their bio laboratory in Simferopol [Crimea's second-largest city and the republic's political and economic centre]."
The recent findings affirm Russia's claims that Ukraine "was turning into a springboard for potential aggression against [Russia] our country, including with the help of conducting 'covert biological warfare'."
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday that the bio labs in Ukraine, which Washington has recently admitted to funding, had experiments conducted with bat coronavirus samples.
Moscow has recently requested that the UN Security Council hold an emergency meeting to discuss the suspected manufacturing of biological weapons in Ukraine. Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, called on the member states to think about the biological danger to Europe, which can result from an uncontrolled spread of bioagents from Ukraine.
Read more: US-made biolabs in Ukraine complicit in deadly pathogens transfer
On Thursday, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russian military specialists obtained documents confirming the transfer of human biomaterials taken in Ukraine to foreign countries on Washington's instructions.
Konashenkov said "according to the documents, the American side planned to conduct work on pathogens of birds, bats, and reptiles in Ukraine in 2022, with a further transition to studying the possibility of carrying African swine fever and anthrax".
Russian specialists from the nuclear, biological, and chemical protection troops studied documents on the transfer of human biomaterials taken in Ukraine to foreign countries, upon a US request, Konashenkov told reporters.
"In the near future, we will publish the next package of documents received from Ukrainian employees of biological laboratories and present the results of their examination," he said.
Moreover, the United States is concerned that the Russian forces will reach the labs, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said Tuesday, as the Russian forces make further advances into Ukraine ahead of their ceasefire.
Read more: US fears being accused of violating Biological Weapons Convention
"Ukraine has biological research facilities, which, in fact, we are now quite concerned Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of," Nuland said during a Senate hearing.
According to the Under Secretary, Washington is working with Kiev on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces "should they approach".
