Obama, Hunter Biden ties to Ukraine biolabs get fresh scrutiny
The U.S. has funded Ukrainian biodefense labs — but not for offensive weapons
By Aaron Kliegman
Updated: March 29, 2022 - 12:28pm
In August 2005, the U.S. entered into a little known agreement with Ukraine that included America aid to upgrade security at Ukrainian facilities in which microbes were kept.
Now, almost 17 years later, questions about the deal – and the United States' broader support for biodefense laboratories in Ukraine – have surfaced amid concerns about chemical or biological weapons being used in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian government has been claiming for weeks that the U.S. government is funding bioweapon labs in Ukraine, justifying its invasion as an effort to stop a joint American-Ukrainian plan to wage biological warfare against Russia.
Chinese officials and state media have echoed the claims, which Andrew Weber, senior fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks, calls "utter nonsense."
"It's KGB-style misinformation that's been going on for about 15 years," he said Monday.
One concern among analysts and U.S. officials is that Russia could be laying the groundwork for using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine and giving itself plausible deniability by blaming Ukrainian labs.
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https://justthenews.com/government/security/biden-obama-and-ukraine-biolabs-separating-fact-fiction
