WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday rejected Russia’s assertion that it supports Ukraine’s biological weapons program, saying the allegations suggest Moscow could soon use the weapons itself.
“The Kremlin is intentionally spreading outright lies that the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons activities in Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
“Russia is inventing false pretexts in an attempt to justify its own horrific actions in Ukraine.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the claims “ridiculous,” noting that “we have also seen Chinese officials respond to these conspiracy theories.”
“Now that Russia has made these false claims… we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them,” she said on Twitter.
On March 6, Moscow s foreign ministry tweeted that Russian forces found evidence that Kyiv was erasing traces of the military-biological program in Ukraine, allegedly financed by the United States.
Price said “this Russian disinformation is total nonsense” and added that Russia had “a track record of accusing the West of the very crimes that Russia itself is perpetrating.”
However, the United States said on Tuesday that it was working with Ukraine to prevent invading Russian forces from confiscating biological research materials in the country.
