A UN disarmament official and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations have rejected a Russian complaint filed with the UN Security Council demanding an investigation into U.S. "military biological activities" in Ukraine.
The accusation, raised by the Russian Foreign Ministry on October 27, is "pure fabrication brought forth without a shred of evidence," U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council.
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She also said she wanted to set the record straight that neither Ukraine nor the United States has a biological weapons program.
The UN's deputy high representative for disarmament affairs, Adedeji Ebo, also addressed the question, telling the Security Council that the United Nations is "not aware" of any biological weapons program in Ukraine.
"We are aware that the Russian Federation has filed an official complaint...regarding allegations of biological weapons programs in Ukraine," Ebo said.
"As high representative Izumi Nakamitsu informed the council in March, and May of this year, the United Nations is not aware of any such biological weapons programs," he said.
He also said United Nations had no mandate or technical capacity to investigate the claim.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier on October 27 that "during the course of the special military operation [in Ukraine] evidence and material that shed light on the true nature of the U.S. military-biological activities on Ukrainian territory were obtained."
The ministry said it was “left with no choice but to file a complaint with the chairman of the UN Security Council to launch an international investigation" into "the military-biological activities of the United States in Ukraine," according to a ministry statement.
The complaint was filed with a draft resolution to the Security Council, it said.
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Russia accused the United States of funding research into the development of biological weapons aiming to "establish a mechanism for the stealthy spread of deadly pathogens."
The United states and Ukraine denied the existence of any laboratories to produce biological weapons in the country.
U.S. President Joe Biden said in March that it was “simply not true” the United States was holding chemical and biological weapons in Europe.