The fact is, biological warfare labs were funded and built by the US Department of Defense, either through Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) or Defense Threat Reduction Agency, in Ukraine and other countries.
In 1975, the nations of the world had got together to sign the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention to ban manufacture, storage and use of biological warfare weapons. Yet in 2019 the world saw the disastrous spread of the Covid-19 pandemic that infected 523 million people globally and killed some 6.3 million. It caused a hit of over $2 trillion to the global economy and nearly caused a recession. Even as the world is emerging from the Covid pandemic, we hear reports of a monkeypox virus rearing its head. The world is still to get to the bottom of the origin of Covid-19. Was it a natural epidemic, an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, or worse, a staged accident to gain deniability for the deliberately induced pandemic? China and the WHO made a mockery of that investigation. We now have received Russian allegations of incriminating material recovered from some of the over 30 biowarfare labs that the US Department of Defense had allegedly funded and run in Ukraine. This could have been dismissed as propaganda but for the fact that most of it is confirmed from open sources in the US itself.
China was not the only country working on bat coronaviruses and other such lethal pathogens. So was the United States. What is more, the US had established a series of biological warfare laboratories in former Soviet states like Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine. Ukraine had become a virtual bridgehead for research in bat coronaviruses, avian flu, and Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fevers. These countries shared bat and bird populations with Russia and as such were natural foci for the spread of these viruses into Russia. Their use could be disguised as natural outbreaks of diseases. So apart from spreading “democracy” to Russia and its neighbours, Ukraine and Georgia were turned into major bridgeheads for destabilization and the spread and projection of viruses and pathogens to kill the people of Russia in their millions (if need arose for such attacks). These labs were not for defensive research (as claimed) but offensive in orientation.
There is an urgent need to strengthen and add teeth to the biological warfare convention and monitor all such facilities in all countries and impose the harshest sanctions for violation.
US BIOLOGICAL WARFARE EFFORTS
The Covid pandemic started in the end of 2019 and caused severe panic and distress all over the globe. The large-scale panic induced by the pandemic forced analysts to research the latest advances in this fast emerging domain of weaponising viruses and pathogens as WMD. The analysts realised that despite the Biological Warfare Convention of 1975, almost all major powers (US, China, and perhaps Russia and Europe as well) were engaged in biological warfare research and development. This was mostly justified as defensive research.
The United States was leading the pack. Not only was it conducting research on its own soil but under Dr Fauci’s “Gain of Function” (GOF) research program, was outsourcing the research to China, Eastern Europe and other destinations, so that if there was a leak, local populations in other countries would suffer the consequences. Mainland US would be safe from such accidents. Surprisingly, most of the information was available in open sources on the internet itself. From these open sources it is possible to piece together a fairly accurate picture of the US’ bio-warfare programs. Those of China have already been studied in great detail.
US MIRD
The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (MIRD) is located at Fort Detrick in Maryland. It has been conducting research on dangerous pathogens like bat coronaviruses, Ebola, MERS etc. In July 2014, the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ordered a safety audit inspection of this biotech facility. It concluded that it lacked facilities to decontaminate waste water. As such this could lead to leakage of dangerous pathogens. It ordered a temporary halt on all such research at Fort Detrick. Thus in 2014 (during President Obama’s administration), the US government paused all Gain of Function (GOF) research being conducted in US. Gain of function research was defined as “research reasonably anticipated to confer attributes that enhance Pathogenicity and Transmissibility in mammals”. It was alleged by Republican Senator Rand Paul that this temporary federal pause in GOF research funding was cleverly sought to be bypassed by Dr Fauci, the head of US National Institute of Health (NIH). His solution seemed simple—offshore such research, give it to the Wuhan Institute of Virology through an NGO led by Peter Dszak. He was given a grant of $3.7 million to offshore these research projects to China and other countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and South East Asia. Of this around $3 billion grant, $600,000 was given to the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
There was another underlying/unstated intention. From countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, such pathogens could exploit local vectors like birds and bats and spread the contagion to Russia or China and other target countries. Clever play of words was used to obfuscate the GOF aspects of the research being outsourced. There were direct accusations by Senator Rand Paul on the floor of the Senate to this effect. What precisely was GOF? Some defined it as introduction of a mutation that enhances the gene’s functional properties. It either increases virulence or transmissibility in humans. One biologist, Charles Schmidt stated that GOF was all in the eye of the beholder (cited in BMB Today, member magazine of the American Society for Biochemistry & Microbiology, 21 November 2021). Subsequently, after the Covid pandemic erupted, Dr Fauci would play upon these nuances in the American Senate to deny that he had funded any GOF research in China. The bat coronavirus program in China was funded through the Eco Heath Alliance NGO of Peter Dszak. Dszak was later part of the WHO investigating team on the origin of the coronavirus.
However, the fact is, biological warfare labs were funded and built by the US Department of Defense itself (either through Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency DARPA or Defense Threat Reduction Agency) in Ukraine and other countries. The funding by the US Department of Defense clearly underlined the offensive nature of this biological research.
IN KAZAKHSTAN
The Kazakhstan National Centre for Biotechnology has received millions of dollars from the US government. This location was considered ideal for bat coronavirus research as it borders both China and Russia. In 2019, a study on bat coronavirus lineages from Kazakhstan was published by this institute. It conducted a deep study of bat fauna and noted great similarities in bats from China, France, Spain and South Africa. Bats from Kazakhstan migrate to China and Ukraine. Reportedly this Institute had a storehouse of 278 pathogens and strains of some 48 infectious diseases.
IN GEORGIA
The covert US bioweapons laboratory at the R Lugar Centre in Tbilisi, Georgia was ideally located to target Russia and do research in animal and bird species native to that region. The Tbilisi biolab in Georgia was also engaged in bat coronavirus research and research in animal and bird species native to that region. Vectors like migratory birds and bats were selected to spread viral infections into Russia and cause pandemics like avian flu and bat corona viruses.
UKRAINE AS A BRIDGEHEAD FOR BIOLOGICAL WARFARE?
The biological warfare infrastructure in Georgia and Kazakhstan, however, were modest compared to the large and elaborate infrastructure established in Ukraine by the US Department of Defense and agencies like DARPA and Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DATA). Actually, the Ukraine program predated the 2014 GOF research offshoring drive. In fact, in 2010, US Senator Dick Lugar had on the net applauded the opening of the Interim Central Defense Laboratory in Odessa (Ukraine). He had announced that it would be instrumental in researching pathogens used by bio-terrorists. The level three bio-safety lab, he said, would be used to study anthrax and Q fever as well as other dangerous pathogens. The US embassy in Kyiv had on its website details of US funding of biological research labs studying dangerous viruses and pathogens. These details were hastily taken off from the embassy website on 25 February 2022, a day after the start of the Russian invasion.
Victoria Nuland, US Deputy Secretary of State, was forced to admit in the US Senate in April 2022 about the establishment of US funded biolabs in Ukraine. In fact, she even expressed apprehensions that those dangerous pathogens should not fall into the hands of the advancing Russians.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had expressed serious concern about US military and biological activities in Ukraine. He accused the US of having 336 biolabs in 30 countries. Of these, he alleged, some 26 biolabs were located in Ukraine alone.
On 24 February, the Pentagon is said to have issued panic instructions to the Ukraine Ministry of Health to destroy the pathogens and viruses stored in these labs along with all documentation pertaining to these research activities.
The American National Academy of Sciences had in 2011 published details of US Department of Defense funded biolab in Odessa that was doing research in dangerous pathogens. The Americans were funding creation of deadly pathogens like African swine flu and respiratory viruses. The factsheet of the US embassy also cited these details in open sources on the net.
The Russians claim that their operations directed towards Kyiv and Kharkiv were also tasked to capture these biolabs. All the bio-war labs in eastern Ukraine were also secured and though most of the toxins and documentation was destroyed, the Russians claim that the interrogation of the lab employees and captured documents reveal what they claim are considerable details of covert US biological warfare program in Ukraine.
The Russians say that they have carried out an analysis of these documents and gave the details out in a press conference. They claimed the following:
* Since 2014 a network of more than 30 labs for bio-warfare established in the territory of Ukraine, with financial and organizational support from the US Department of Defense.
* They were engaged in research programs to study especially dangerous pathogens and viruses.
* Customers for these programs were the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
* The Russians claimed that an agreement for joint bio-warfare activities was concluded between US Defense Department and Ministry of Health Ukraine. The real recipients of funds were the labs run by Ukraine MoD located in Lviv, Odessa, Kyiv and Kharkiv. Some $32 million of funding was provided for these labs.
* Biolabs were aided by US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and a civilian contractor firm—Black Viatech.
* The pathogens being studied were avian flu, bat coronavirus, Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever, Leptospirosis, and Hanta viruses. All these have natural foci in Ukraine and Russia and hence their use could be disguised as natural outbreak of disease.
The three key projects being run were:
* P-781 Project on bat coronaviruses: This was to study ways of transmitting diseases to humans through bats. This was being done primarily in the biolabs in Kharkiv and the R Lugar laboratory in Tbilisi in Georgia. Main contractor, however, was Ukraine and a total sum of $1.6 mn was spent on this bat coronavirus project.
* UP-4 Project Avian Flu: This was aimed at detection of diseases in birds that pose greatest danger to humans and have maximum potential for destabilisation of epidemiological situation in a region for limited periods of time. They studied routes of bird migrations and determined which of them pass through Russian territory. They determined places of greatest congestion of birds where it would be possible to infect whole flocks with dangerous pathogens. Russian claim that there was an outbreak of avian flu in 2021 and 6 million birds of poultry stock had to be destroyed.
* U-P-8 Project: This aimed to study pathogens of Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever as also Leptospirosis and Hanta viruses.
* German research: Russians claim Germany also conducted its own military and biological programs in Ukraine which focused on the Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever in European conditions. For this, the Bernhard Nocht Institute of Tropical Medicine (of Hamburg Germany) cooperated with Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health Ukraine. German experts, the Russians claimed, visited Ukrainian hospitals in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa and Lviv to study features and the causes of the disease in local populations. The project was said to be funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bundeshwehr. This research seems more defensive in orientation.
* There was work on pathogenic bacteria (plague Brucellosis and Leptospirosis—especially strains resistant to drugs). The Odessa biolab was focusing on plague, anthrax, cholera and drug resistant strains of tuberculosis as well as Dirofilariasis, a disease transmitted by mosquitos. This last one had actually spread in Kherson (which supplies water to Crimea).
* Finally, the Americans were alleged to be collecting blood serum and DNA samples of the ethnic Slav populations in Ukraine to facilitate research for targeting particular ethnotypes. These studies looked into the influence of pathogens on humans, taking into account racial and ethnic factors. The aim was to develop biological weapon of specific action or “ethnic weapons” to target particular social groups and ethnicities—in this case Russian Slav ethnicity. (All these are Russian claims.)
These are indeed serious allegations and deserve to be investigated impartially by the WHO or a special UN mandated body set up to enforce the Biological Warfare Convention of 1975. There is a dire need to strengthen the Biological Warfare Convention of 1975.
Maj Gen (Dr) G.D. Bakshi (Retd) is a military veteran.
By arrangement with Indian Military Review.