Ukraine's Health Ministry comments on US Director of National Intelligence's claims about "US biolabs" in Ukraine

Ukraine's Health Ministry has commented on claims by US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that the US government has long funded more than 120 "biolaboratories", including in Ukraine.

Source: Ukraine's Health Ministry in a comment, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The Ukrainian ministry said Ukraine has consistently fulfilled its international obligations under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) and has never engaged in the development, production or stockpiling of biological weapons.

The ministry said cooperation between Ukraine and the United States in the field of biosafety over many years has been aimed exclusively at strengthening public health system capacity, epidemiological surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, biosafety and biosecurity.

It clarified that this refers to activities that comply with international public health standards and practices and are exclusively civilian in nature.

Laboratory institutions that participated in relevant international technical assistance programmes are diagnostic, scientific or reference laboratories within the public health system, veterinary medicine or other research institutions.

"By their very nature, they are neither designed nor capable of being used for the development of biological weapons or for conducting research aimed at creating pathogens with enhanced dangerous properties," the Ministry of Health stressed.

Ukraine's Health Ministry said the presence of pathogen samples in laboratories is not unusual. Such samples are used worldwide for diagnostics, epidemiological surveillance, scientific research and responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Quote: "Ukraine remains committed to the principles of transparency, international cooperation, and strengthening the global biosafety framework. We believe it is important to rely on the results of international consultations that have already taken place and on verified facts, rather than on assumptions or interpretations of certain aspects of international technical assistance programmes."

Background:

• Tulsi Gabbard earlier "declassified" materials that allegedly contain evidence of long-term US government funding for more than 120 "biolaboratories", including some in Ukraine.
• Her press release claims that the biolabs – where research is conducted into biological pathogens, including dangerous ones – include laboratories in Ukraine which may be "at risk of compromise due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war".
• On the accompanying "map", Gabbard's office has marked the location of Kyiv or Kyiv Oblast incorrectly and labelled one of the sites "Cherniv". The "map" also indicates that Ukraine supposedly has "biolaboratories" in Russian-occupied Crimea and in a city called "Zakarpattia".
• In response, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has rejected these baseless allegations.

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