Members of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, will work in a joint commission with the lower house – the State Duma – to investigate US biological laboratories in Ukraine, Grigory Karasin, head of the Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told Sputnik.
Earlier, a draft resolution was submitted to the State Duma, which presented a list of lawmakers who could be included in the commission to probe the activities of the US labs in Ukraine. It reports support for the initiative to create the commission, as well as an appeal to the Federation Council with a proposal to create the commission. The annex to the resolution names 14 lawmakers, including commission chair Irina Yarovaya.
“We will definitely join this commission. We discussed this issue,” Karasin said.
The Russian Defense Ministry earlier held a presentation, according to which it was noted that the United States spent over $200 million on biological laboratories in Ukraine, which participated in the American military biological program.
Russia, in light of the US military biological activities in Ukraine, does not exclude the launch of a consultation mechanism under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), according to the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.
Also adding to the ongoing commentary on information about US-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lizqian urged Washington to clarify its biological militarization activities at home and abroad.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov also said that what has now been revealed in Ukraine is only a small fraction of more than 300 US biological laboratories scattered around the world, and added that Moscow will provide new documents on their work.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on March 7 that Russian military forces had discovered 30 biological facilities in Ukraine that are or were under the supervision of the US Department of Defense, which could be involved in the production of dangerous and illegal chemical weapons under the Geneva Convention.
On March 8, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told the Senate that the US was working with Ukraine to preserve biological laboratories there because the Russian military “may be seeking to gain control” of them during Russia’s special military operation.
Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, said last week that the UN lacked both the mandate and the technical capability to probe the Russia’s reports of biological weapons programs in Ukraine.
