The Defense Department on Wednesday shot down new accusations from Russia that the U.S. maintains nefarious biological weapons labs in Ukraine, blasting a “false narrative” that Moscow has employed as one of its pretexts for its full-scale invasion there.
“This is a piece of the Russian playbook here,” a senior defense official told reporters on the condition of anonymity on Wednesday morning. “Claim they’re the victims, create a false narrative to try to justify their own aggressive actions.
“It’s absurd, it’s laughable, it is untrue,” the official said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier on Wednesday that its claims of U.S. military biological programs in Ukraine represent an important issue internationally and that the world needs to know the truth. He further demanded that the U.S. explain why it supports the program Russia claims exists. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry likewise claimed the labs contain anthrax, cholera, plague and other pathogens.
China, which has emerged as a critical ally of Russia amid its growing isolation internationally, has previously offered similar claims.
Russia’s justification to launch war on a scale unseen in Europe since World War II has shifted in the 14 days since its invasion. It has ranged from a supposed “denazification” campaign aimed at a government in Kyiv it considers illegitimate to purportedly protecting the rights of ethnic Russians living in territory violently contested for years in Ukraine’s east – a...
Russian military command has been lying for the fifth month in a row about battlefield “successes,” claiming that Russian forces are advancing west of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. However, this...