Shafaq News/ Russia demanded from the United States to explain to the world why it had supported what Moscow cast as a military biological program in Ukraine involving deadly pathogens including plague and anthrax.
"Evidence of a US-financed military biological program developed in Ukraine has been revealed during Russia's special operation in that country," Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
"In the course of the special military operation, evidence of the Kyiv regime's hasty measures to conceal any traces of the military biological program finance by the U.S. Department of Defense in Ukraine has been revealed," he added.
According to the spokesperson, information was received from employees of Ukrainian bio laboratories that especially hazardous pathogens: plague, anthrax, cholera, tularemia, and other lethal diseases infecting agents had been urgently destroyed on February 24.
The Ukrainian health ministry issued an instruction to all bio laboratories to urgently destroy hazardous pathogens they had. He confirmed.
"Obviously, after the launch of the special military operations, Pentagon became afraid that secret biological experiments in Ukraine will be exposed. Therefore, we will share the results of the analysis of the documents we have received soon. Some of them, in particular the Ukrainian health ministry's instruction to destroy pathogens and certificates of completion from the Kharkiv and Poltava bio laboratories we are publishing right now," he said.
In the same context, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova demanded "transparency from Washington over the allegation, which is denied by Kyiv and which a Pentagon spokesman has described as absurd."
She said Russia had uncovered evidence of the alleged program during its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
"We can already conclude that in Ukrainian biological laboratories in direct proximity to the territory of our country, development of components of biological weapons was being carried out," she said.
A Ukrainian presidential spokesperson said: "Ukraine strictly denies any such allegation."
"The U.S. Defence Department and the presidential administration of the United States are obliged to officially explain to the global community, officially, not through talking heads, about the programs in Ukraine."
The European Union has said it doubted the credibility of Russian claims it had uncovered a military biological program in Ukraine.
It said Moscow had a history of spreading disinformation about biological weapons.
"The credibility of information provided by Kremlin is in general very doubtful and low," E.U. foreign affairs spokesperson Peter Stano said.
A Ukrainian presidential spokesperson said, "Ukraine strictly denies any such allegation."
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby also rejected Russian accusations that the U.S. is operating "military biological labs" in Ukraine, calling such claims "absurd" and "laughable."
White House also denied the Russian "biological weapon labs" claim.
"We took note of Russia's false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a series of tweets.
She said Russia could lay the groundwork for using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine "or create a false flag operation using them" but did not offer evidence.