US admits there are ‘biological facilities’ in Ukraine
US under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland speaking on Tuesday during her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
What you need to know:
- Ms Nuland was speaking during her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Washington. US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland on Tuesday said Ukraine has biological research facilities adding that Washington working with Ukraine to prevent the facilities from falling into Russian forces’ hands.
“Ukraine has biological research facilities which in fact we are quite concerned Russian troops, 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,” Nuland said.
She was answering Republican Senator Marco Rubo (Florida) who wanted to know whether Ukraine has Chemical or biological weapons.
But she said that she was 100 percent sure that if there's a biological attack, then it would be by Russia. Ms Nuland was speaking during her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“It is clear that Russia will lose this conflict - it is only a matter of time,” adding that Ukraine needs continued defensive support from the US and European allies and further economic sanctions against Russia could be coming.
On Monday, Moscow claimed Ukrainian authorities had been destroying pathogens studied at 30 US-financed biolabs in the country. Kiev has denied developing bioweapons.
Whereas on Tuesday the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson urged the US relevant details as soon as possible” regarding alleged US biological laboratories in Ukraine.
“According to the data released by the US, it has 26 biological laboratories and other related facilities in Ukraine which has indeed attracted great attention,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a news conference in Beijing.
He added: The US Department of Defense controls 336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world under the names of ‘cooperating to reduce biosecurity risks and strengthening global public health,’” Zhao added
