UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (AP): The UN Security Council was scheduled a meeting on Friday at Russia's request to discuss what Moscow claims are "the military biological activities of the US on the territory of Ukraine," allegations vehemently denied by the Biden administration.
"This is exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack," Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations said late Thursday. "We're not going to let Russia gaslight the world or use the UN Security Council as a venue for promoting their disinformation".
The Russian request, announced in a tweet Thursday afternoon from its first deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, follows the US rejection of Russian accusations that Ukraine is running chemical and biological labs with US support.
In response to this week's accusations by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova - without evidence - White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a public warning Wednesday that Russia might use chemical or biological weapons against Ukraine, the neighbor it has invaded.
Psaki called Russia's claim "preposterous" and tweeted: "This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine."
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby on Wednesday called the Russian claim "a bunch of malarkey."
Dalton said "Russia has a well-documented history of using chemical weapons and has long maintained a biological weapons programme in violation of international law" as well as "a track record of falsely accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating."
Dmitry Chumakov, another Russian deputy UN ambassador, repeated the accusation Wednesday, urging Western media to cover "the news about secret biological laboratories in Ukraine."
A tweet from Russia's Ministry of Defence, after Polyansky's tweet calling for a council meeting, referred to a "briefing on the results of the analysis of documents related to the military biological activities of the United States on the territory of Ukraine."
The UN announced Thursday evening that the meeting will take place at 10am EST but then pushed it back to 11am EST. UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu and UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo are scheduled to brief the council.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated Thursday what he said Wednesday-that the World Health Organization, which has been working with the Ukrainian government, "said they are unaware of any activity on the part of the Ukrainian government which is inconsistent with its international treaty obligations, including on chemical weapons or biological weapons."
The United States for months has warned about Russian "false flag" operations to create a pretext for the invasion.
The White House warning, and Dalton's statement Thursday, suggested Russia might seek to create a pretense for further escalating the two-week-old conflict that has seen the Russian offensive slowed by stronger than expected Ukrainian defenders, but not stopped.
The international community for years has assessed that Russia used chemical weapons in carrying out assassination attempts against Putin enemies like Alexey Navalny, now in a Russian prison, and former spy Sergei Skripal, who lives in the United Kingdom. Russia also supports the Assad government in Syria, which has used chemical weapons against its people in an 11-year-long civil war.
The Security Council held its monthly meeting Thursday on Syria's chemical weapons with disarmament chief Nakamitsu criticizing the Syrian government for repeatedly refusing to answer questions about its chemical weapons programme and urging the Assad government to do so.
Earlier, Russia said on Wednesday the United States must explain what Moscow claims was a military biological programme in Ukraine - an allegation Washington has already dismissed as "absurd" misinformation.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said evidence of the alleged programme had been uncovered by Russia during what it calls its military operation in Ukraine, which its forces invaded on Feb 24. It involved deadly pathogens including plague and anthrax, she said.
A Ukrainian presidential spokesperson said: "Ukraine strictly denies any such allegation".
In response to earlier Russian allegations about the purported military biological programme in Ukraine, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday: "This absurd Russian misinformation is patently false".
Zakharova said Russia had documents showing that the Ukrainian health ministry had ordered the destruction of samples of plague, cholera, anthrax and other pathogens after Feb 24.
"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.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) 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 on Thursday.
Biosecurity experts say Russia's movement of troops into Ukraine and bombardment of its cities have raised the risk of an escape of disease-causing pathogens, should any of those facilities be damaged.
Like many other countries, Ukraine has public health laboratories researching how to mitigate the threats of dangerous diseases affecting both animals and humans including, most recently, Covid-19. Its labs have received support from the United States, the European Union and the WHO.
In response to questions from Reuters about its work with Ukraine ahead of and during Russia's invasion, the WHO said in an email that it has collaborated with Ukrainian public health labs for several years to promote security practices that help prevent "accidental or deliberate release of pathogens."
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
