Kyiv Rejects Allegations of Biological Weapons Development

Ukraine has rejected claims by US intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard that the United States funded more than 120 biological laboratories around the world, including facilities in Ukraine.

The foreign ministry in Kyiv said all cooperative programs with the US were exclusively related to biosecurity, public health and preventing the spread of infectious diseases, and that there was no evidence of biological weapons development or military use of the laboratories.

Kyiv stressed that Ukraine complies with its obligations under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and described the allegations as a continuation of a narrative it said Russia had been spreading for several years. The ministry added that similar allegations had been repeatedly verified and refuted at the international level.

(mja)