Crimean Authorities Expose US Plans to Set up Biolab on Peninsula

Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the US-funded biolabs in Ukraine engaged in the development of components for biological weapons. The biolabs were spotted by Russian troops amid Moscow's ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.

The US considered opening a biolab in Simferopol before the Crimean Peninsula's reunification with Russia, Georgy Muradov, the permanent representative of the Republic of Crimea under the Russian president, has told Sputnik.

"Biological weapons have been developed for years in the Pentagon's secret laboratories located on Ukrainian territory. This is no news for Crimean residents, given that the US [previously] planned to create the same lab on the peninsula. Only the reunification of Crimea with Russia in March 2014 stopped the implementation of the plans to create pathogens on Crimean territory", Muradov stated.

He added that at the time, employees from the Russian consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor spotted the former Soviet plague control station in Simferopol, where they found 104 pools of ectoparasites, 46 samples of internal organs of rodents, and 105 samples of human blood serum, which were due to be delivered abroad.

Muradov additionally said that the Rospotrebnadzor employees had discovered documents at the plague control station, which revealed that "the Americans were going to open their bio laboratory in Simferopol [Crimea's second-largest city and the republic's political and economic centre]".

Referring to the US-funded biological labs earlier tracked in Ukraine, the politician stressed that those "finds" confirm the Russian government's conclusions that Ukraine "was turning into a springboard for potential aggression against our country, including with the help of conducting 'covert biological warfare'".

US Biolabs in Ukraine Involved in Bat Coronavirus Experiments

The remarks came after the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on Thursday that the US-funded bio labs located in Ukraine were conducting experiments with bat coronavirus samples.

MoD spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters that "according to the documents, the American side planned to conduct work on pathogens of birds, bats, and reptiles in Ukraine in 2022, with a further transition to studying the possibility of carrying African swine fever and anthrax".

He spoke after units of the Russian armed forces, who are currently conducting a special military operation in Ukraine, discovered 30 biological compounds in the country. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that these biolabs had been involved in the development of components for biological weapons.

Igor Kirillov, the head of the Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defence Troops of the Russian armed forces, earlier said that the US spent more than $200 million on the biolabs in Ukraine.

The US initially slammed the information as "fake", but Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland eventually admitted the existence of US-funded "biological research facilities" on Ukrainian soil. She added that Washington is "quite concerned" the biolabs could come under the control of Russian forces.

The Russian special military operation to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine was announced by President Vladimir Putin on 24 February. Last week, he underlined that the operation, which is only targeting Ukraine's military infrastructure and doesn't pose a threat to civilians, is going "as planned".

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