Ukrainian Biolabs
It happened again.
A once mocked and “debunked” conspiracy theory has become delayed truth.
This time, in regard to the American-funded Ukrainian Biolabs, which certainly did not exist. Until they did.
You have to appreciate the hilarity of it all, or you’ll go insane. Presenting the newest conspiracy theory, according to the Fact Checkers™:
Victoria Nuland: Ukraine Has “Biological Research Facilities,” Worried Russia May Seize Them
The neocon’s confession sheds critical light on the U.S. role in Ukraine, and raises vital questions about these labs that deserve answers.
Self-anointed “fact-checkers” in the U.S. corporate press have spent two weeks mocking as disinformation and a false conspiracy theory the claim that Ukraine has biological weapons labs, either alone or with U.S. support. They never presented any evidence for their ruling — how could they possibly know? and how could they prove the negative? — but nonetheless they invoked their characteristically authoritative, above-it-all tone of self-assurance and self-arrogated right to decree the truth, definitively labelling such claims false.
Claims that Ukraine currently maintains dangerous biological weapons labs came from Russia as well as China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry this month claimed: “The US has 336 labs in 30 countries under its control, including 26 in Ukraine alone.” The Russian Foreign Ministry asserted that “Russia obtained documents proving that Ukrainian biological laboratories located near Russian borders worked on development of components of biological weapons.” Such assertions deserve the same level of skepticism as U.S. denials: namely, none of it should be believed to be true or false absent evidence. Yet U.S. fact-checkers dutifully and reflexively sided with the U.S. Government to declare such claims “disinformation” and to mock them as QAnon conspiracy theories.
Unfortunately for this propaganda racket masquerading as neutral and high-minded fact-checking, the neocon official long in charge of U.S. policy in Ukraine testified on Monday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and strongly suggested that such claims are, at least in part, true. Yesterday afternoon, Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), hoping to debunk growing claims that there are chemical weapons labs in Ukraine, smugly asked Nuland: “Does Ukraine have chemical or biological weapons?”
Rubio undoubtedly expected a flat denial by Nuland, thus providing further “proof” that such speculation is dastardly Fake News emanating from the Kremlin, the CCP and QAnon. Instead, Nuland did something completely uncharacteristic for her, for neocons, and for senior U.S. foreign policy officials: for some reason, she told a version of the truth. Her answer visibly stunned Rubio, who — as soon as he realized the damage she was doing to the U.S. messaging campaign by telling the truth — interrupted her and demanded that she instead affirm that if a biological attack were to occur, everyone should be “100% sure” that it was Russia who did it. Grateful for the life raft, Nuland told Rubio he was right.
But Rubio’s clean-up act came too late. When asked whether Ukraine possesses “chemical or biological weapons,” Nuland did not deny this: at all. She instead — with palpable pen-twirling discomfort and in halting speech, a glaring contrast to her normally cocky style of speaking in obfuscatory State Department officialese — acknowledged: “uh, Ukraine has, uh, biological research facilities.” Any hope to depict such “facilities” as benign or banal was immediately destroyed by the warning she quickly added: “we are now in fact quite concerned that Russian troops, Russian forces, may be seeking to, uh, gain control of [those labs], so we are working with the Ukrainiahhhns [sic] on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach” — [interruption by Sen. Rubio]:
Nuland’s bizarre admission that “Ukraine has biological research facilities” that are dangerous enough to warrant concern that they could fall into Russian hands ironically constituted more decisive evidence of the existence of such programs in Ukraine than what was offered in 2002 and 2003 to corroborate U.S. allegations about Saddam’s chemical and biological programs in Iraq. An actual against-interest confession from a top U.S. official under oath is clearly more significant than Colin Powell’s holding up some test tube with an unknown substance inside while he pointed to grainy satellite images that nobody could decipher.
But that is not all:
US-funded biolabs in Ukraine at the heart of ongoing propaganda war
[…]
Funds for most of the labs cites the US Ministry of Defense as “donor,” according to the documents.
Recipients include the Ukraine’s Ministry of Health (8 cases) and the Ukraine State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service (4 cases).
The labs are located in Zakarpartska, Vinnytsia, Ternopil, Lviv, Luhansk, Kherson, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.
12 biolabs, $21 million investment
In all cases, according to the documents, the head contractor is the Kansas-based company Black & Veatch.
[…]
On 26 February, two days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva tweeted that she had found out that the 15 links to pdf documents describing the Ukranian biolabs “were just deleted” from the website of Washington’s embassy in Kyiv.
At the time, RFI found that the documents had indeed disappeared from the US embassy website, but that they were still available via de internet archive Wayback Machine.
[…]
‘Conceal any traces’
On 6 March, Moscow’s propaganda machine itself went into overdrive. Russian news agency Tass carried a report that Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov “revealed evidence of a US-financed military biological program developed in Ukraine,” adding that the “Kiev regime” had applied “hasty measures” to “conceal any traces” of the program.
Press agency Ria produced a set of documents “proving” the allegations.
One day later, on 7 March, Russia’s state controlled media outlet Ria Novosti quoted Igor Kirillov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense of the Armed Forces as saying that “the Russian military has discovered 30 biolaboratories in Ukraine producing, possibly, bioweapons.”
The next day, Chinese government spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during a regular press conference on 8 March, without offering any further evidence that ” … US biological labs in Ukraine have indeed attracted much attention. According to reports, a large quantity of dangerous viruses are stored in these facilities. Russia has found during its military operations that the US uses these facilities to conduct bio-military plans.”
Zhao added that “according to data released by the US, it has 26 bio-labs and other related facilities in Ukraine, over which the US Department of Defense has absolute control.”
‘Quite concerned’
The US initially tried to play down the rumors, but was in the end forced to react. during a Senate hearing on 8 March.
The Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland confirmed that Ukraine “has biological research facilities,” which, the US is “now quite concerned Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of, so we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach”.
[…]
On 10 March, the 15 links to the documents on the US Kyiv embassy website started working once again, clumsily coinciding with a US State Department statement which insisted that the US “does not own or operate any chemical or biological laboratories in Ukraine.”
This may may be factually true, as the US Department of Defense functioned as “donor” for the millions for the biolabs which are currently all operated by Ukrainian entities, according to the documents.
[…]
It is now up to the Americans to provide more transparency on the project.
So, in summary:
- They did have biolabs.
- Those biolabs were funded by us.
- And they must be engaged in some type of activity that would warrant worry about the Russians seizing them.
Which is exactly what the conspiracy theory said weeks before this came out. Even if we didn’t directly “own” the biolabs, we funded them. In a nation-state as corrupt as Ukraine, that is akin to owning them. Especially when contracted with U.S. companies.
I like Vox Days take on it, by renaming conspiracy theories as “spoiler alerts”. Very accurate. Especially in this instance.
But if you thought it ended there, try again. It gets even worse:
EXCLUSIVE WHO says it advised Ukraine to destroy pathogens in health labs to prevent disease spread
The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in the country’s public health laboratories to prevent “any potential spills” that would spread disease among the population, the agency told Reuters.
[…]
“As part of this work, WHO has strongly recommended to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine and other responsible bodies to destroy high-threat pathogens to prevent any potential spills,” the WHO, a United Nations agency, said.
[…]
On Friday, Russia called a meeting of the 15-member U.N. Security Council to reassert, without providing evidence, a longstanding claim that Ukraine ran biological weapons laboratories with U.S. Defense Department support.
The accusation has been repeatedly denied by Ukraine and the United States, where government officials warn Russia may use it as a pretext to deploy its own chemical or biological weapons.
So, in summary:
- The U.S. denies it has any relation to biolabs in Ukraine, but gets caught.
- Even the WHO intervenes to “destroy the pathogens” to prevent disease amongst the population.
- Russia is somehow the bad guy because they may use this as pretext to deploy their own chemical or biological weapons.
It’s phenomenal the mind games and redirection these journos can spin. We clearly know that there are Ukranian biolabs that we are funding in the region, that have some type of problematic pathogens should they be released (confirmed by both U.S. and WHO), and somehow Russia is the evil one because of it.
I’ve floated the idea of a false-flag chemical attack committed by Ukraine, U.S., or NATO in a prior article: A New Narrative: Chemical Weapon Attack In Ukraine. It seems like a biological weapon attack is also on the table, given the odd U.S. response outlined here.
Be extremely skeptical of any news coming out of a bio or chemical weapon attack in the region. It’s not that the Russians wouldn’t do it, but that they have many incentives not to. Meanwhile, the U.S. and NATO have a lot of incentives to do so, such as to justify retaliation. Or to simply cover their tracks in the region. Or to further demonize Russia. The list goes on.
In my Endgame article, I considered it a possibility that a new (actual) pandemic would be released to push forward the next stage. This presents a very convincing pretext, if that is their plan.
I also can’t help but wonder how many other worldwide biolabs we are funding. If we’re brazen enough to do it on the borders of Russia, a notable enemy, I’m sure we have them scattered everywhere.
Not a great sign. This is one conspiracy theory I was hoping would be wrong for a change.
Read Next:
The Bombing Of The Reddit Legion
A New Narrative: Chemical Weapon Attack In Ukraine
Does America Have The Moral Authority To Criticize Russia?
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