DISINFO: The Pentagon has two biological laboratories in Zaporizhzhia
SUMMARY
Two biological laboratories, established under Pentagon programs, are located in the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is currently under the control of the Kyiv regime. According to operational information, these laboratories were previously secretly presented as private entities and the areas are closed and heavily guarded, thus not attracting attention.
RESPONSE
This disinformation story is an attempt to advance a long-discredited pro-Kremlin narrative about US military biolaboratories, utilising the frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation technique of adding new elements to old unsubstantiated allegations. In this case, this disinformation story abounds on previous baseless claims about US research for bioweapons against specific ethnic groups, taking it as a matter of fact and adding, without proof, that this practice has been in place for decades.
According to the US Department of Defense and Ukrainian officials, US involvement in Ukraine is carried out through the Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP). The purpose of this program is to ensure public health and control dangerous infectious diseases in cooperation with former Soviet states, including Ukraine. The laboratories established for this purpose are not used to create biological weapons, but to research diseases and reduce biological threats. US officials have confirmed that there are no chemical or biological weapons programs in Ukraine.
Claims about US military bioweapons are part of a years-long disinformation campaign and have been debunked over and over again. Specific allegations about the presence of these facilities in Ukraine have been refuted by multiple experts, including by the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu and by Russian biologists who examined Moscow’s “proof”. Nonetheless, pro-Kremlin outlets and Russian authorities continue promoting them as they have been used as a justification for Russia’s brutal invasion of its neighbour “on defensive grounds”.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the Pentagon develops biological weapons in more than 470 biolabs around the world, that forced to abandon tests in Ukraine, the US is expanding bioweapons research in Africa, that Kazakhstan agreed to host 30 American biolabs relocated from Ukraine, or that the US is using biolabs around the world to create epidemics at will.