The protracted Ukraine War has gone murkier with Russian forces in Ukraine claiming to have come across US-aided bio-labs developing dangerous pathogens. Not many are aware that the US Department of Defence (DoD) had entered into an agreement with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health in 2005, establishing multiple Pentagon-funded bio-labs in Ukraine to research, develop and store pathogens under US supervision with clear military applications. But on March 11, 2022, in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) emergency meeting convened at Russia’s behest, Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative of Disarmament Affairs, said the UN is not aware of any such bio-weapons program.
According to Vassily Nebenzia, Russian representative, the documents captured by the Russian forces included Pentagon’s instructions to destroy all evidence before it falls in enemy hands. The documents confirmed that Ukraine with the US support operates a network of at least 30 bio-labs, at which dangerous experiments were being conducted to strengthen pathogenic qualities of plague, anthrax, cholera and other lethal diseases. Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, refuted the bio-weapon charge and harped on ceasefire.
Further, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, American representative, went on the offensive and said that there are no US-funded bio-labs in Ukraine. The British and French representatives naturally sided with Linda but the Chinese representative said Russian concerns (bio-weapons) must be addressed adequately, with provision of comprehensive clarification and verification.
Instead of examining the issue raised by Russia, Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, stood up and said: “The UN has no right to investigate this matter. Have you understood?” Guterres is from Portugal, which is a founding member of NATO and member of EU. An impartial international probe is very much possible under the Chemical and Biological Convention as well as other provisions available with the UN. In December, 2013, a UN team went to Syria to investigate the use of chemical weapons.
Not many are aware that the US Department of Defence (DoD) had entered into an agreement with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health in 2005, establishing multiple Pentagon-funded bio-labs in Ukraine to research, develop and store pathogens under US supervision with clear military applications
Concurrently, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, World Health Organization (WHO) joined in to say that Ukraine should destroy “civilian” biochemical facilities to prevent leakage. Ghebreyesus had earlier earned disrepute turning down pleas for investigation into a virus leak from the P-4 lab at Wuhan in China.
During the ongoing Ukraine conflict, the UN has been compromised as never before, being reduced to the level of its predecessor – League of Nations.
Subsequently, details emerged that akin to Ukraine, the US had Pentagon-funded bio-labs in another 24 countries. Apparently, the US has been working on a global-level biological warfare plan since more than a decade and a half. While nuclear weapons if used can result in mutually assured destruction, the US has chalked out an elaborate biological warfare plan; it has used biological weapons with impunity in multiple nations earlier also.
The UNSC’s Arria Formula Meeting on Biological Security regarding the biological activities in countries including Ukraine, held on April 6, 2022 had more surprises in store. The US and the UK apparently knew what was to be discussed and abstained.
During the meeting, General Igor Kirillov, Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defence Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, brought out some startling facts, accusing the US of establishing bio-labs in 36 countries and connecting them to a unified system, spending over $5 billion on military biological program since 2005 and modernising some 60 bio-lab facilities in territories bordering Russia and China alone.
Subsequently, details emerged that akin to Ukraine, the US had Pentagon-funded bio-labs in another 24 countries. Apparently, the US has been working on a global-level biological warfare plan since more than a decade and a half
Kirillov further said that Ukrainian bio-labs conduct research and monitor biological situation of 30 facilities in 14 populated areas. The ongoing research on diseases and epidemics focused on means of release and testing, even without the knowledge of the governments of these countries, and experiments related to Coronavirus included bats used to transmit this virus.
These birds are released to the flock of birds migrating to the target countries. Exact location of the digitised birds is continuously monitored by satellites. On reaching the area in the target country, the bird is killed and the germs released. Kirillov claimed Russia has in its possession digitised migratory birds captured in Ukraine
Migratory birds crisscross the globe every year, travelling great distances. The Arctic Turn, a medium-sized bird, travels 90,000 km every year from Greenland in the North to the Weddell Sea in the South. In October 2020, a bar-tailed Godwit (Limosalapponica) reportedly flew for 11 days straight from Alaska to New Zealand, traversing a distance of 12,000 km without stopping, breaking the longest nonstop flight among birds known to scientists.
This is a sinister, effective and virtually no-cost method of biological attack but the US will go scot free with the UN compromised. That is why Anthony Stephen Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the US President was collaborating in biological research with the P-4 lab in Wuhan, China.
Whether the current pandemic deluge in China is courtesy of the Pentagon will never be known but China can be expected to be working on similar bio-weapons since it keeps tabs on all type of research in the West, also stealing what it can. As for India, secret development of bio-weapons is out of the question given our moralistic high ground, even though Chanakya had said, “Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.”
But we do need to take the above threats seriously and implement ‘whatever’ counter measures deemed fit by the national hierarchy. Finally, these developments indicate the hidden designs of the US and should raise serious concerns in the minds of America’s allies and strategic partners.
(The author is an Indian Army veteran. Views expressed are personal.)
