INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia on Thursday accused the United States of funding research into the development of biological weapons in Ukraine, as Moscow stepped up
its campaign to gain control of key Ukrainian cities.Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a televised briefing that
deadly pathogens."Konashenkov claimed the ministry had obtained documents detailing United States military-biological activities in
Ukraine, including on the transfer of Ukrainians' biomaterial abroad.He said Washington "planned to carry out research on bird, bat and
with bat coronavirus samples," Konashenkov added.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a press conference later Thursday following talks
with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba repeated the claim, saying Washington had funded development of biological weapons in
Ukraine."The Americans carried out this work in complete secrecy
Just like how they work in other former Soviet states, creating their military-biological labs right along Russia's borders," he said.Both
Washington and Kyiv have denied the existence of laboratories intended to produce biological weapons in the country, which has faced a
Russian assault by tens of thousands of troops since Feb
24.Russia has repeatedly accused the United States of secretly carrying out biological experiments in a lab in Georgia, another former
Soviet republic, which like Ukraine aims to join NATO and the European Union.
