One of the most popular false narratives utilized by the Kremlin to justify Russian aggression against Ukraine is the 1 concerning the existence of alleged American biolaboratories in Ukraine. The article explains the origin of this conspiracy explanation and how the Russians utilized it in their propaganda machine.
Source: Twitter/WarClandestine
Analysis
More about our evaluation system:Origin of theories on biolaboratories in Ukraine
The first mention of Russian propaganda about American laboratories in Ukraine appeared in April 2020, during the summit of the first COVID-19 wave. Maria Zacharova, spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of abroad Affairs, She accused United States to work on the creation and modification of pathogens of dangerous diseases, of which for military use, in laboratories in the Postowiecki countries.
American fake news trail
How can we read in the article NBC News, according to Pyrra Technologies, a cybersecurity company, the first mention of biolaboratories appeared on an utmost right-wing American social network Gab February 14, which is 10 days before the Russian invasion. User @SKYior joined this portal graphics "Exclusive American biological laboratories in Ukraine, which are funded at the expense of the US Department of Defense". It did not gain much publicity until the outbreak of the war.
Source: Twitter/Ben CollinsOn February 24 on Twitter, user @WarClandestine posted the same map, suggesting that Russia bombards biolaboratories in Ukraine. According to a non-governmental organization ADL (Anti-Defaation League), behind the @WarClandestine account stands Jacob Creech, a veteran of the National defender associated with the QAnon conspiracy movement. On 26 February, he confessed in podcast Another QAnon believer that he is behind the conspiracy explanation about biolaboratories in Ukraine.
This time, information about secret labs has gained popularity. It was picked up by Alex Jones, the owner of the site. InfoWars and 1 of the most popular conspiracy theorists in the United States. 6 April Creech is invited to programme Alex Jones to share live with his “discovery” as a consequence of the graphics thrown through an anonymous account on Gab portal.
The Russians take over the narrative
On 27 February, the Russian embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina published Tweet, in which she accused the United States of building military biological laboratories in which "the methods of destroying the Russian people at the genetic level are being developed".
3 March Sergei Lavrow, Russian abroad Minister, spoke with authoritative position of two, built by the United States, war laboratories, where they are allegedly working on developing pathogens.
On 6 March, a communicative of dangerous biological weapons produced in Ukraine reached mainstream media in the US, thanks to programme Tucker Carlson of Fox News. Carlson in it asked: “Why Ukraine biological weapons?” His belief in Ukrainian secret biolaboratories was confirmed by Victoria Nuland, US Undersecretary of State. During hearings In the U.S. Senate, she admitted that "Ukraine has biological investigation facilities that we are rather afraid about now, as Russian forces may search to gain control of them" and "We work with Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of these investigation materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces." These words became evidence for Carlson of the existence of secret laboratories producing biological weapons against Russia.
8 March, Russian Ministry of abroad Affairs issued statement, with whom Ukraine has been accused of creating biological weapons components in laboratories located close Russia.
Source: Twitter/Mush RussiaDocuments that undermine conspiracy theory
March 17th, Gen. Igor Kirilov of Russian Ministry of Defence reported at a press conference thatThe Ossian army obtained papers confirming that the Pentagon was active in financing military biological projects in Ukraine.
In the context of the harm caused by avian influenza in 2021 in Russia, resulting in the demolition of 6 million poultry, he referred to the FLU-FLYWAY task conducted by the Institute of Veterinary medicine in Kharkov. This institute studied chaotic birds as vectors for the spread of avian influenza. However, at the conference document a graphic showing the other direction of bird migration, that is, from Russia to Europe, than the 1 suggested by Kirilov, which would prove a threat to the territory of the Russian Federation.
Source: Briefing KirilovChinese Thread
On the same day, on press conference Chinese MFA spokesperson Zhao Lijian said:
Recently, American biological laboratories in Ukraine have truly attracted quite a few attention. According to reports, large amounts of dangerous viruses are stored in these facilities. Russia has discovered during its military operations that the US is utilizing these facilities to conduct bio-military plans.
Lijian did not specify which reports were involved. Interestingly, the same minister in 2021 published Tweet with a video promoting conspiracy explanation suggesting that COVID-19 coronavirus was produced and leaked from a military installation in Frederick, Maryland, about 80 km north of Washington. Among another things, the case was written BBC.
Source: Twitter/Zhao LijianThe 2018 biolaboratories explanation in Georgia
The communicative itself about bio-laboratories threatening Russia in neighbouring countries is not new. It was already utilized in 2018 towards Georgia. Maria Zacharova, during her briefing, expressed concern about the third-degree biosecurity laboratory opened in 2013 in the village of Alexeevka close Tbilisi, called the current R. Lugar investigation Centre.
How can we read on page The European Centre for Non-governmental Projects, the Lugar Centre, named after the name of American Senator Richard Lugar, was built for $150 million from the U.S. budget, and since 2018 it has been full managed and financed by the Georgia Ministry of Health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility dealt with the fight against the spread of this disease.
The Lugar Centre is simply a BSL-3 biosecurity laboratory, which means it meets all the essential standards for conducting investigation on bacteria and viruses causing severe, possibly fatal diseases. Along with Georgian scientists, American researchers from the U.S. Army Medical investigation Directorate-Georgia besides work there, performing tasks specified as illness surveillance or vaccine development.
What are actually laboratories in Ukraine?
Since the 1990s, Washington and Kiev have collaborated in preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass demolition and combating dangerous diseases. It is liable for cooperation established in 1998 Defense Threat simplification Office, which in Ukraine runs 4 programs. 1 of them concerns the ongoing propaganda war between Russia and the United States and Ukraine, the Biohazard simplification Programme.
How can we read on websiteU.S. embassy in Kiev:
The Biological hazard simplification Office cooperates with partner countries to Action the most dangerous infectious diseases in the world. The programme pursues its mission to reduce biological risks through the improvement of a biological hazard management culture, global investigation partnerships and the capacity of partners to strengthen biosecurity, biosecurity and biosecurity measures. The priorities of the Biological Threat simplification Programme in Ukraine are: consolidation and protection of pathogens and toxins applicable to safety and further assurance Ukraine's ability to detect and study outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they become a threat to safety or stability.
On page U.S. embassies in Ukraine have published 15 papers describing in item 12 different laboratories and institutions that have or are in the process of obtaining a "work licence with (unspecified) pathogens". According to these documents, the founder for most laboratories is the United States Ministry of Defense. The recipients are the Ministry of wellness of Ukraine (8 cases) and the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service of Ukraine (4 cases).
Source: U.S. Embassy in UkraineThe laboratories are located in Zakarpacie, Winnica, Tarnopol, Lviv, Lugansk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa. They were all created between 2009 and 2012, and the full cost of building them was $21.3 million.
Missing and recurring biolaboratories documents
While these papers until the outbreak of the war were and are presently on the embassy website, 2 days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine was removed, about which informed Bulgarian writer Dilyan Gaytandzhiev on her Twitter. The erasure of documentation about American investments in biolaboratories in Ukraine from the site servers became water on the mill of Kremel propaganda, about which we wrote earlier.
Documents returned to website Washington embassies March 10, shortly after statement State Department, in which the Kremlovian communicative about the alleged U.S. activities in Ukraine related to the production of chemical and biological weapons was denied. It ensures that the US in comply full with their obligations under the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the Biological Weapons Convention and do not make or hold specified weapons. At the same time, the United States in its Communication accused Russia of active chemical and biological weapons programs.
Summary
Currently there are respective laboratories in Ukraine that deal with countering the hazard of the most dangerous infectious diseases. Their founder was the United States government, but all of them are presently operated exclusively by Ukrainian entities.
The existence of these laboratories, unlike those of conspiracy groups and Russian propaganda, was never a secret. However, the temporary removal of papers concerning their construction from the embassy at the beginning of the war was harmful, as it unnecessarily poured fuel into the device of the Kremel propaganda.
Russia has never provided evidence of biological weapons production in Ukrainian laboratories, and the false communicative itself during the current invasion has its origin in an anonymous account on Gab portal.
Sources
Political: https://www.politact.com/article/2022/mar/11/russia-china-and-tucker-carlson-lack-evidence-ukra/
Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/infowars-conspiracy-theory-appears-in-Russian-chinese-propaganda-on-Ukraine-2022-3?r=US&IR=T
BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58273322
U.S. Embassy in AU: https://ua.usembassy.gov/embassy/kyiv/sections-offices/defense-threat-reduction-office/biological-threat-reduction-program/
State Department: https://www.state.gov/the-kremlins-allegations-of-chemical-and-biological-weapons-laboratories-in-Ukraine/
ECPP: https://www.ecpp.org.pl/center-lugara-gruzinskie-laboratory-in-fire-Russian-disinformation/
