The United Nations has said it found no evidence Ukraine had a biological weapons program, while Washington and its allies accused Russia of spreading "disinformation" as a possible prelude to launching its own biological or chemical attacks.
Russia called the meeting of the 15-member UN Security Council to reassert through its envoy Vassily Nebenzia that Ukraine ran biological weapons laboratories with US Defence Department support.
No evidence was provided.
Member countries called the claim "a lie" and "utter nonsense" and used the session to accuse Russia of deliberately targeting and killing hundreds of civilians in Ukraine, assertions that Russia denies in a 15-day offensive it calls "a special military operation".
Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, told the council the United Nations was "not aware" of any biological weapons program in Ukraine, which had joined an international ban on such arms — as has Russia and the United States, along with 180 other countries.
But Mr Nebenzia said Russia's defence ministry had documents charging that Ukraine had at least 30 biological laboratories carrying out "very dangerous biological experiments" involving pathogens, and its work was "being done and funded and supervised by the Defence Threat Reduction Agency of the United States".
Ukraine does have a network of biological labs that have received funding and research support from the US — but they are owned and operated by Ukraine and are part of an initiative called the Biological Threat Reduction Program that aims to reduce the likelihood of deadly outbreaks, whether natural or man-made.
"The labs are not secret," Filippa Lentzos a senior lecturer in science and international security at King’s College London, said via email.
"They are not being used in relation to bioweapons. This is all disinformation."
The WHO advised Ukraine on Thursday to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in its public health laboratories to prevent "any potential spills" that would spread disease among the population.
The US envoy to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Washington was "deeply concerned" that Russia called the session as a "false flag effort" to lay the groundwork for its own use of biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Although she provided no evidence of an imminent Russian threat during the meeting, she said: "Russia has a track record of falsely accusing other countries of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating."
"We believe Russia could use chemical or biological agents for assassinations, as part of a staged or false flag incident, or to support tactical military operations."
Britain's UN Ambassador, Barbara Woodward, called the allegations "utter nonsense" and said "Russia is sinking to new depths today, but the council must not get dragged down with it".
Russia cites US invasion of Iraq
Responding to Ms Thomas-Greenfield's statement, Mr Nebenzia recalled then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell's 2003 Security Council testimony when he presented what Washington claimed was proof that Iraq was hiding banned weapons of mass destruction programs.
The United States used the assertion, which turned out to be false, to justify its 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
Answering the Russian envoy, Ms Thomas-Greenfield said: "I know that you expect me to respond but we're not going to give any more airtime to the lies that you're hearing today."
She also accused Russia's ally, China, of "spreading disinformation in support of Russia's outrageous claims".
China's UN Ambassador, Zhang Jun, expressed concern at Russia's accusations and urged an investigation to "provide a comprehensive clarification and accept a multilateral verification".
'Fantasies or starry-eyed stories'
US allies echoed Ms Thomas-Greenfield's concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin's government was spreading the claim of a US-backed bioweapons program in Ukraine to prepare its own chemical or biological attacks in Ukraine.
"We should therefore be very worried that in spreading such disinformation, a crescendo of allegations about weapons of mass destruction could serve as yet another pretext for Russia to prepare the ground and use chemical or biological weapons during its ongoing invasion of Ukraine."
The international community for years has assessed that Russia used chemical weapons in carrying out assassination attempts against its political opponents, such as Alexei Navalny, now in a Russian prison, and former spy Sergei Skripal, who lives in the UK.
Russia also supports the Syrian government, which has used chemical weapons against its people in an 11-year civil war.
Russia denies these allegations.
“Russia has a well-documented history of using chemical weapons and has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law,” said Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations.
She added Moscow has “a track record of falsely accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating".
ABC/wires
