Igor Nikulin, a Russian military expert and former member of the UN Biological Weapons Commission, has spread disinformation, claiming that there are Western biological laboratories near the Russian border, allegedly conducting an undeclared biological warfare against Russia and its allies.
Nikulin stated: “There are dozens of Western biological laboratories near Russia’s borders, and an undeclared biological warfare is being carried out against Russia and its allies,” warned Igor Nikulin, the Russian military expert. “The United States and its satellites—the United Kingdom and the European Union—have operated at least 60 such laboratories in recent years.”
The laboratories referenced by Russian authorities are, in fact, research facilities equipped with various systems for filtering air, gases, chemicals, and water before being released into the environment. These laboratories are involved in collaborative projects between Ukraine’s Ministry of Health and German experts from the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) in Hamburg. The aim of these collaborations is to improve surveillance and diagnostics for diseases such as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.
On the other hand, Russia still maintains numerous laboratories, primarily military, dedicated to nuclear, medical, and chemical research. International experts agree that the security standards at these Russian laboratories are “below average.” Many of these facilities are outdated Soviet-era labs of the same purpose, though they have been partially modernized over time.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, dismissed the accusations regarding the laboratories, asserting that Ukraine does not have a biological weapons development program.
