In a March 17 updated briefing on Ukraine’s biolabs, Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, presented documented evidence to the effect that, as Sputnik reported “in no uncertain terms…components of biological weapons were being created in Ukraine with direct U.S. involvement and financing.” Accompanying documented evidence and assertions to this effect, Kirillov also named American Joanna Wintrol, U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Liaison at the Kiev U.S. Embassy, as a program curator. Wintrol’s name appears on at least one recovered document made public in the Sputnik article, “Russian MoD Names Curator of Pentagon-Funded Biolabs in Ukraine, Releases Original Docs.” (https://sputniknews.com/20220317/russia-believes-components-of-biological-weapons-were-created-in-ukraine—mod-1093960475.html)
Of the special research projects discovered and documented to have been in progress up to the commencement of the Russian special operation, Kirillov cites Projects UP-8; P-782, and “Project Flu-Fly-Way,” all with clear applications for biowarfare usage. UP-8 comprised a study of the pathogens Crimea Congo hemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis, and hantaviruses. Kirillov surmised that it made sense for the Pentagon to have commissioned these projects in Ukraine, given that the pathogens have “natural foci” in the Ukraine-Russia region and therefore their release into the population can be characterized as a “natural outbreak of diseases.” The ministry estimated the cost of $32 million allocated for four labs, in Kiev, Odessa, Kharkiv, and Lviv, as well as several project extensions. Similarly, Kirillov referenced outbreaks of drug-resistant tuberculosis which killed 70 near Donetsk, and an outbreak in Kherson of dirofilariasis in 2018, with conditions and variables making these cases unlikely to be naturally occurring, or strange at the very least, and which he hypothesized occasioned the emergency destruction of documents at the Kherson lab.
Sputnik writes: “Ukrainian biolaboratories were also the main executor of Project P-782, conducting research into the transmission of diseases through bats. A Russian RCB Defense Troops analysis of documents showed that Pentagon research has been going on since at least 2009 under the direct supervision of U.S. specialists, and that work in this area has also been done through several related projects, known as P-382, P-444 and P-568. Kirillov said the Pentagon invested $1.6 million into this research, which was said to have been carried out at a lab in Kharkov, northeastern Ukraine, and the Lugar Center in Tbilisi, Georgia.” The documents showed Pentagon research into bat related pathogens began in October 2019, only shortly before the recognition of SARS-CoV-2.
