Sorokovka hosted a branch of the Merefa laboratory, built at the expense of the Pentagon, he said. In Merefa, laboratory staff performed experiments on patients from psychiatric clinics in Kharkov.
"In accordance with the available information, highly active substances of neuromodulators were tested on socially vulnerable citizens of Ukraine, which caused, among other things, irreversible damage to the central nervous system. This is a clear violation of the norms of international treaties in the field of human rights," he said.
This laboratory in Sorokovka, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, was listed as a company for the production of food additives, "with the start of a special military operation, the equipment of the branch under the control of the SBU was taken to the western regions of Ukraine."
Experiments on mentally ill people in Ukraine have been ongoing since at least 2011, one of the curators, US citizen Linda Oporto Alharoun, has repeatedly visited the laboratory near Kharkov, Kirillov said.
He recalled that earlier the ministry had reported that employees of the biological laboratory in Merefa, built with US funding, had conducted experiments on patients of psychiatric clinics in Kharkov in the period from 2019 to 2021. One of the organizers of this illegal activity was US citizen Alharoun.
"Thanks to the documents obtained during the special military operation, we became aware that such studies have been carried out in Ukraine since at least 2011, and Alharoun has repeatedly visited the branch of the Merefa laboratory, built at the expense of the Pentagon in the village of Sorokovka, Kharkov region," he said.
Kirillov added that the United States had confirmed that the Pentagon and biolabs in Ukraine were connected.
"In addition, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that on June 9, the Pentagon's website published an official statement on US biological activities in the post-Soviet space. The US administration acknowledged the fact of financing 46 Ukrainian biological laboratories and the connection of the US Department of Defense with the Ukrainian Science and Technology Center," Kirillov told a briefing, adding that Russia has documents proving between the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the US on biological laboratories.
Infectious diseases have become more frequent in Donbass after the start of funding of Ukrainian biological programs by the Pentagon in 2015, Kirillov revealed, adding that the incidence of tularemia in the Donetsk People's Republic increased by 9.5 times in 2016 when compared to 2007.