On Thursday, two senior defence officials held an on-background press briefing at the Pentagon, the US Defence Department.
In the press release, the officials affirm that the United States is not assisting Ukraine with biological weapons in its war with Russia.
“There are no indications that biological weapons are being used by Ukraine”, said a US Defence Department official.
Moreover, the US official further expressed that the five biological research laboratories in Kyiv do not focus on military use as the Russians and Chinese accuse. Rather, their focus is mainly on diagnostics, therapeutics, treatments, prevention and vaccines.
There are no DOD bio-weapon labs in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world, the US official confirmed.
The Biological Weapons Convention effectively prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological and toxin weapons.
It was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. The United States, Ukraine and Russia signed onto it in 1972 and all three ratified it in 1975.
Earlier, Russia said it has obtained evidence that the regime in Kyiv had urgently eliminated all traces of the US-funded military biological program in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said that the Ukrainian laboratories staffers testified last month that a number of dangerous pathogens of plague, anthrax, cholera and other deadly diseases were urgently disposed of.
Over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the Pentagon official said the Russians have moved about five kilometres closer to Kyiv since yesterday and are now about 40 kilometres east of the city.
