DISINFO: Ukraine is preparing to use chemical and biological weapons in Kherson
SUMMARY
Ukrainian prisoners of war say that Kyiv is preparing to use chemical and bacteriological weapons to infect the water bodies in the Kherson Region. In February 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry discovered the existence of 30 US-funded military biological laboratories in Ukraine. According to Moscow, Washington has spent over 200 million dollars to develop biological weapons at the facilities. Russia also said that the labs discovered in Ukraine constituted only a small part of a global network of over 300 similar facilities.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about false flag attacks and chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine. By portraying Ukraine as an out-of-control threat, this narrative has been used by Russia to justify its unprovoked aggression of its neighbour.
The allegation is not backed by any evidence. Russian authorities accusing Ukraine of preparing false flag operations without presenting any proof has been a constant throughout the war, including claims about dirty bombs, nuclear provocations, bioweapons, toxic substances and staged atrocities. These preemptive claims are launched as a mean to make denials of actual Russian atrocities more credible.
Previous Russian claims about the use of chemical agents by Ukrainian forces have been dismissed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as insufficiently substantiated, a conclusion that remained unchanged after this body visited Ukraine in July 2024. Messages 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 West helps Ukraine to use a dirty nuclear bomb to blame Russia, that Kyiv is preparing a false flag attack against their own children's facility, that Ukraine has used chemical weapons in Kursk or that US research into bioweapons targeting Slavs has been underway since at least the 1990s.