(New York) The UN Security Council has scheduled a meeting for Friday at Russia’s request to discuss what Moscow claims are “US military biological activities on the territory of Ukraine,” allegations vehemently denied by the administration of Joe Biden.
Posted yesterday at 10:49 p.m.
“These are exactly the kinds of false flag operations that we warned Russia might launch to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack,” Olivia Dalton, spokeswoman for the US mission to the United Nations, said Thursday evening. . Russia psychologically manipulates the world or uses the UN Security Council as a venue to promote its disinformation. »
The Russian request, announced in a tweet on Thursday afternoon by its first deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, follows the United States’ rejection of Russian accusations that Ukraine runs chemical and biological laboratories with the support from the United States.
Responding to this week’s accusations — without evidence — from Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a public warning on Wednesday that Russia could use chemical or biological weapons against Ukraine.
Mme Psaki called Russia’s claim “absurd” and wrote on Twitter: “This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify its new premeditated, unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine.”
On Wednesday, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby called the Russian claim “a series of hogwash.”
Mme Dalton said that “Russia has a well-documented history of using chemical weapons and has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law” as well as “a record of false accusations from the West of same violations that Russia itself is committing”.
Dmitry Chumakov, another Russian deputy ambassador to the UN, reiterated the accusation on Wednesday, urging Western media to cover “secret biological lab news in Ukraine”.
A tweet from the Russian Ministry of Defense, after Mr Polyansky’s message calling for a council meeting, referred to a “briefing on the results of the analysis of documents related to the military biological activities of the United States in the territory. of Ukraine”.
The UN announced Thursday evening that the meeting will take place at 10 a.m. EST. UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu and UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo are to brief the council.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated on Thursday what he had said on Wednesday — that the World Health Organization, which works with the Ukrainian government, “said it was not aware of any activity on the part of the Ukrainian government that would be inconsistent with its international treaty obligations, including on chemical weapons or biological weapons”.
For months, the United States has warned against Russian false flag operations to create a pretext for invasion.
The White House warning and Mr.me Dalton on Thursday suggest Russia may be looking to create a pretext to further escalate the two-week-old conflict that has seen the Russian offensive slowed by stronger-than-expected Ukrainians.
The international community has believed for years that Russia has used chemical weapons to carry out assassination attempts against enemies of Vladimir Putin like Alexey Navalny, now in a Russian prison, and former spy Sergei Skripal, who lives in the Kingdom. -United. Russia also supports the Assad government in Syria, which has used chemical weapons against its people during an 11-year civil war.
The Security Council held its monthly meeting Thursday on Syria’s chemical weapons with the chief of disarmament, Mme Nakamitsu, criticizing the Syrian government for repeatedly refusing to answer questions about its chemical weapons program and urging the Assad government to do so.
Last June, the head of the international chemical weapons watchdog, Fernando Arias, said his experts investigated 77 allegations against Syria and concluded that in 17 cases chemical weapons were probably or definitely used.
Mme Nakamitsu ended his statement Thursday by saying, “The use of chemical weapons is a serious violation of international law and an affront to our common humanity. »
“We must remain vigilant to ensure that these dreadful weapons are never used again and are eliminated, not only in Syria, but everywhere,” she added.
US Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills said that, unfortunately, Syria was getting help from its Russian ally, which he said “has repeatedly spread misinformation about the repeated use of ‘chemical weapons by Syria’.
“The recent fake news network that Russia launched in an attempt to justify the premeditated and unjustified war it has undertaken against Ukraine should make it clear, once and for all, that Russia cannot be trusted either. Russia when talking about the use of chemical weapons in Syria,” Mills said.
Britain’s deputy ambassador, James Kariuki, told the council that “the parallels” between Russia’s action in Ukraine — “besieging cities, killing civilians indiscriminately, forcing millions to flee into quest for security” — and its actions in Syria “are clear”.
“Unfortunately, the comparison also extends to chemical weapons, as we see the familiar specter of Russian disinformation on chemical weapons rearing its head in Ukraine,” he added.