MOSCOW
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Thursday that Hunter Biden, the son of the US president, was directly involved in financing biological laboratories in Ukraine.
Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Force, presented documents at a news conference in Moscow, allegedly of Ukrainian and US origin, seized in battles in Ukraine.
They showed the Rosemont Seneca Partners investment fund, chaired by Hunter Biden, sponsored a military biological program in Ukraine.
From the information presented in the documents, Rosemont Seneca is closely affiliated with Metabiota and Black and Veach companies, known as official contractors for the delivery of equipment for the Pentagon's biolabs all over the world, according to Kirillov.
"The scale of the program is impressive. In addition to the (US) Department of Defense, the US Agency for International Development, the George Soros Foundation, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are directly involved in the program's implementation in Ukraine," he said.
Research in Ukrainian biolaboratories was led by the Los Alamos National Lab, which is developing nuclear weapons in the framework of the Manhattan Project, he added.
The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that created the world’s first nuclear weapon.
"All these activities are carried out under the full control of the Pentagon," said Kirillov.
According to a document called "a registration card," 30 biolaboratories in 14 Ukraine's settlements were engaged in the development of biological weapons.
Russia said in areas it now controls there are no labs but it is unclear if labs exist in other parts of Ukraine.
The card mentions the contractor -- the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
Apart from experiments with viruses, the biolabs studied pathogens and information that can be used to develop biological weapons, said the document.
In the framework of a project called UP-8 conducted in Lviv, Kharkiv, Odessa and Kyiv, 4,000 servicemen were tested for hantaviruses antibodies and 400 others for the presence of antibodies for the Congo-Crimean fever virus.
In total, more than 16,000 biological tests taken in Ukraine were transferred abroad.
"Such a large-scale screening of the natural immunity of the population was probably carried out in order to select the biological agents most dangerous for the population of a certain region.
"Analysis of the documentation shows that not only tissue samples and human blood serum were exported abroad, but also dangerous pathogens, as well as their carriers. More than 10,000 samples were sent to the Lugar Center in Georgia, reference laboratories in the UK and the Leffler Institute in Germany," said Kirillov.
He warned that the transfer of sensitive genetic information creates risks not only for Ukraine but for regions where the tests were transported.
Ukrainian servicemen were also used to test the unlicensed drug, Deep Drug, although such activities are prohibited in the US.
Documents from a UP-2 project show that its priority was the study of the causative agent of anthrax, which is characterized by a high damaging ability and resistance to the environment.
Biolabs’ employees were searching for burial sites for animals killed by anthrax and then samples of infected soil were taken.
Another team was researching insect carriers in the places of animal burial grounds.
"Given that the epidemic situation with anthrax in Ukraine remains safe, the question arises about the need for research conducted by the Pentagon and their true goals," said Kirillov.
He added that the US is leading the world in the number of biological laboratories. According to China's data, at least 336 US biolabs work in 30 countries.
"We believe that in the context of the incoming information, it is necessary to seek clarification from Washington regarding the true goals of the activities of American biological laboratories in the framework of an international investigation," he said.
On March 10, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed it obtained documents indicating that US-sponsored biological laboratories in Ukraine conducted experiments with bat coronavirus samples.
The records recovered by Russia confirmed that the biolabs investigated pathogen transmission by wild birds traveling between Ukraine and Russia, as well as other bordering nations.
US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland confirmed that there are US-led biological research facilities in Ukraine during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing March 8 regarding Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Kyiv and Washington are now working to prevent the materials accumulated there from falling into the hands of Russian forces, she said.
