(Washington) The United States on Wednesday accused Russia and China of “intentionally” spreading “lies” about alleged American biological and chemical weapons laboratories in Ukraine, saying it fears Russian use of such prohibited weapons.
Posted at 6:43 p.m.
“The Kremlin is intentionally spreading outright lies that the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons-related activities in Ukraine,” US Foreign Affairs spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
“We have also seen officials in the People’s Republic of China peddling these conspiracy theories,” he added.
“It is not the first time that Russia has invented such false accusations against another country,” he said, assuring that they had been “confirmed definitively and on several occasions”.
Questioned Tuesday during a parliamentary hearing, the number three of American diplomacy Victoria Nuland had affirmed that Ukraine had “biological research facilities”.
“We are in fact now quite worried about the possibility that Russian forces will try to take control of it,” she added, assuring that we were working with the Ukrainians to prevent these sensitive materials “from falling into the hands” of Moscow.
A Republican senator, Marco Rubio, then pointed out that “Russian propaganda” had reported an alleged Ukrainian “plan” aimed at using “biological weapons in the country with the coordination of NATO”.
“It’s a classic Russian technique to accuse others of what they plan to do themselves,” replied Victoria Nuland.
On Wednesday, the White House went further. “Now that Russia has issued its false accusations and China seems to be embracing this propaganda, we must monitor any possible use by Russia of chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine,” warned its spokesperson Jen Psaki on Twitter.
She affirmed that the United States “fully” respects the international texts on these prohibited weapons, unlike Russia, which Westerners accuse of having “poisoned” opponents and supported the Syrian regime “which has repeatedly used Chemical Weapons “.