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Russia has asked the U.N. Security Council to set up a committee to investigate its claims that the U.S. and Ukraine violated the Biological Weapons Convention by operating in a Ukrainian biological laboratory.
A draft resolution circulated to council members obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday noted that Russia had filed a formal complaint under Article VI of the convention alleging that prohibited biological activity was taking place in Ukraine.
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, its U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, claimed that the U.S. engaged in biological warfare in secret Ukrainian laboratories — an allegation the U.S. and Ukraine deny.
The draft resolution would authorize the Council to set up a 15-member committee to investigate Russia’s claims and report to the Council by Nov. 30, as well as a review meeting in Geneva from Nov. 28 to Dec. 28. Report to the parties to the Convention. 16.
In a letter, Nebenzia said it was distributing the resolution, along with about 300 pages of material, ahead of Moscow’s request for a Thursday Security Council meeting on Ukraine’s biological activities. Russia also plans to hold Security Council expert consultations on the draft resolution, he said.
In March, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of using the Security Council meeting to “lie and spread disinformation about biological weapons” as part of Moscow’s potentially false campaign to use chemical or biological agents in Ukraine.
The U.S. mission to the United Nations did not immediately comment on the Russian draft resolution.
An Associated Press investigation in March found that unfounded Russian claims about a secret U.S. biological warfare laboratory in Ukraine are taking root online, including in the U.S., uniting Covid-19 conspiracy theorists, QAnon followers and former President Donald Trump Some of Trump’s supporters – despite rebuttals – come from independent scientists, Ukrainian leaders, and White House and Pentagon officials.
Ukraine does have a network of biological laboratories that receive funding and research support from the United States, but they are owned and operated by Ukraine and are part of a program called the Biological Threat Reduction Program, which aims to reduce the likelihood of deadly outbreaks , whether natural or man-made. U.S. efforts date back to the 1990s to dismantle the Soviet Union’s weapons of mass destruction program.
“These labs are no secret,” Philippa Renzos, a senior lecturer in science and international security at King’s College London, said in an email to The Associated Press in March. “They’re not being used in biological weapons. It’s all disinformation.”
In a letter circulated to Council members on Tuesday, Nebenzia claimed that during what Russia called a “special military operation” in Ukraine, it obtained “various documents and evidence that reveal the presence of the United States and Ukraine on Ukrainian territory.”
“Analysis of the data shows that the United States and Ukraine are not complying with the provisions of the BWC,” he said.
Nebenzia said Russia tried to “obtain exhaustive answers” about the specific activities of the United States and Ukraine and the implementation of the pact, but “Washington and Kyiv did not provide the necessary explanations and did not take immediate steps to correct the situation.”
He said Russia convened a formal meeting of the pact’s 197 signatories in late August and early September to discuss the activities of the Ukrainian biolab, but the final report said “no consensus could be reached on the issues we raised.”
These issues “remain open and need to be resolved,” Nebenzia said, which is why Russia has invoked Article 6 of the convention. It gives States parties the right to ask the Security Council to investigate suspected violations.
The draft resolution also states that Article 6 requires States parties to “cooperate in any investigation that the Security Council may initiate”.
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