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The UN Security Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected Russia’s attempt to create a committee to investigate its baseless claims that Ukraine and the United States are conducting “military biological” activities in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention.
Russia won only the support of China in its vote on the resolution, with the United States, Britain and France voting against it and 10 other Security Council countries abstaining. The resolution was not passed because it did not receive the required minimum 9 votes in favor. adoption.
The 2-3-10 vote reflects the committee’s continued opposition and suspicion of Russia’s actions since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine. Because of Russia’s veto, the committee cannot take any action against Russia’s military offensive.
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Russia circulated the draft resolution and a 310-page document to Security Council members last week, alleging that military biological activities are being carried out at a biological laboratory in Ukraine with the support of the US Department of Defense.
Russian Deputy Ambassador Dmitry Poliansky said after the vote that the Russian government did not respond positively to the Security Council’s request for a 15-member Security Council committee to allow an investigation of its complaint under Article VI, saying “Very disappointed”. Biological Weapons Convention.
He claimed “Western countries have shown in various ways that the law does not apply to them” and were “ready to trample on any norm and flout any rule”, accusing them of having a “colonial mentality”.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield countered that the U.S. voted against the resolution “because it is based on disinformation, dishonesty, dishonesty and total disrespect for this institution.”
Before the vote, Russia’s Poliansky called the resolution “a considerable milestone” that would show whether the Security Council is prepared to act in accordance with international law, giving parties to the Biological Weapons Convention the right to seek investigations at the Security Council.
“This is a milestone in Russian deception and lies,” Thomas Greenfield shot back. “The whole world saw it.”
At a September meeting of the 197 parties to the BWC, she said that “Russia has failed to provide any credible evidence to support these false allegations” and that the vast majority of speaking countries “believe that the issues raised by Russia are unsubstantiated, and has been finally resolved.”
But Thomas Greenfield said that wasn’t enough, “it inappropriately makes the same false claims here, abuses its position and abuses us.”
Russia’s initial allegations in March that the United States was building a secret biological warfare laboratory in Ukraine have been questioned by independent scientists, Ukrainian leaders, and White House and Pentagon officials. An Associated Press investigation in March found that the claim was taking root online, uniting COVID-19 conspiracy theorists, QAnon followers and some supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Ukraine does have a network of biological laboratories that receive funding and research support from the United States. Owned and operated by Ukraine, they 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.
Russia held a Security Council meeting on its claims last Thursday, which the United States and its Western allies strongly opposed.
U.S. Ambassador Thomas Greenfield called the meeting a “waste of time” and said the claims were part of Moscow’s “disinformation campaign” to try to “divert attention from Russian troops in Ukraine and desperate atrocities.” Strategies to justify an unjustified war. “
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“Ukraine has no biological weapons program,” she said. “The U.S. has no biological weapons program. There is no U.S.-backed Ukrainian biological weapons laboratory.”
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, has accused the U.S. of working in Ukraine to tackle deadly pathogens — including cholera, plague, anthrax and the flu — under the guise of public health. He said the documents and evidence recovered by Russian authorities indicated military applications.
Nebenzia told the Security Council that the Russian military had recovered drones capable of spraying biological agents while in Ukraine, as well as documents he said were related to research into the potential for transmission of pathogens through bats and migratory birds.
Thomas-Greenfield countered that Russia’s claims “are absurd for many reasons, including because these species, even if they could be weaponized, would pose as great a threat to the European continent and Ukraine itself as any other country. “
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