Russia Plans to Launch UN Investigation Into Violation of Biological Weapons Convention in Ukraine

Moscow intends to initiate a UN probe into posible violations of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev stated on Monday. He noted that the parliament commission on biolabs received evidence from the Russian diplomats, suggesting that the US and Ukraine do not follow the convention.

"We are talking about our activities at a UN platform, where, we hope, an international investigation will be initiated in full accordance with Articles 5 and 6 of the UN Convention [banning the development of bioweapons]", he stated.

At the same time, Deputy Speker of Russian State Duma Irina Yarovaya said that Washington and Kiev provided false information to the secretariat of the BWC.

"Thanks to the special operation [in Ukraine], we have the opportunity to assess their reliability ... The facts have been established that both the United States and Ukraine provided incomplete or inaccurate information. Thus, there is a complete concealment in the reports of information on biological programmes with the support of the US Department of Defense in Ukraine. All Ukrainian reports inform of a lack of national biosecurity research and development programmes," Yarovaya told the commission's meeting.

Addressing the issue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated that Moscow is concerned with the American bio-weapons activity not only in Ukraine, but across the globe.

Back in March, the Russian MoD revealed that 30 Pentagon-funded biological laboratories involved in developing components of bioweapons were located in Ukraine. The main goal of this project was to research the especially dangerous infections which are endemic to Ukraine.

Moscow also noted that the US president's son Hunter Biden has been linked to the financing of the DoD's biological military programme in the country.