by Dilyana Gaytandzhieva at Dilyana.BG
Leaked documents give new information about the Pentagon program in biolaboratories in Ukraine. According to internal documents, Pentagon contractors were given full access to all Ukrainian biolaboratories while independent experts were denied even a visit. The new revelations challenge the US government statement that the Pentagon just funded biolaboratories in Ukraine but had nothing to do with them.
Last week US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland confirmed that “Ukraine has biological research facilities” and the US is worried that “those research materials” may fall into the Russian hands. What “research materials” were studied in these biolaboratories and why are US officials so worried that they may fall into Russian hands?
The Pentagon activities in Ukrainian biolabs were funded by the Defense Threat Reduction agency (DTRA). DTRA allocated $80 million for biological research in Ukraine as of 30 July 2020, according to information obtained from the US Federal contracts registry. The US company Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp. was tasked with the program.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) awarded Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp. an $80 million contract under the Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) in Ukraine in 2020.
Pentagon contractors given full access to Ukrainian biolabs
The Ukrainian biolabs were accessible to Pentagon contractors but not to independent experts, according to internal documents published on Reddit by an alleged former employee of the Ukrainian ministry of health. The US company Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp. was given full access to freely operate in all biolabs in Ukraine that were engaged in biological research activities under the DTRA program, according to a letter dated 2 July 2019 from the Ukrainian minister of health to DTRA in Ukraine.
A letter dated 2 July 2019 from the Ukrainian minister of health Ylana Suprun to DTRA in Ukraine gives Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp. full access to all biolaboratories in Ukraine involved in the US military biological research program. Ylana Suprun is an American national and was conferred Ukrainian citizenship by former president Petro Poroshenko in 2015.
Ukraine rejected proposal for public control over the Pentagon-funded biolabs
While Pentagon contractors were given full access to all biolabs involved in the DTRA program, independent experts were denied such access under the pretext that these biolabs were working with especially dangerous pathogens. According to a leaked letter, the Ministry of health of Ukraine denied experts from the scientific journal “Problems of innovation and investment development” access to the Pentagon-funded biolaboratories. The ministry rejected the proposal made by the scientific journal and did not allow independent public control group of experts to supervise these biolaboratories.
“The Ministry of Health of Ukraine considers it inappropriate to create a working group for public control and it is not possible to allow members of the group to enter the premises of laboratories of especially dangerous infections of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine”, according to a letter dated 21 October 2016 from the Ukrainian Deputy Minister for European Integration Oksana Sivak to the scientific journal “Problems of innovation and investment development”.
Another DTRA contractor that operated in Ukraine was CH2M Hill. The American company was awarded a $22.8 million contract (2020-2023) for the reconstruction and equipment of two new biolaboratories: the State Scientific Research Institute of Laboratory Diagnostics and Veterinary-Sanitary Expertise (Kyiv ILD) and the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection Regional Diagnostic Laboratory (Odesa RDL). According to leaked documents, CH2MHill was tasked with an $11.6 million program “Countering Especially Dangerous Pathogen Threats in Ukraine”.
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