Declaration of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine regarding the information provided by Russian media and the governmental circles of the Russian Federation about the alleged existence of laboratories in Ukraine that develop biological weapons.
The Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine has been amazed, disappointed and deeply concerned by the information about numerous meticulously orchestrated reports of Russian media and the governmental circles of the RF on the alleged existence of laboratories in Ukraine that have been developing biological weapons. The same false, unsubstantiated, groundless and entirely declarative information was given by the RF delegation at the meeting of member states of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons in Geneva in November 2021 and at the meeting of UN Security Council in New York on 11 March 2022.
The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine as the topmost scientific institution of this country in basic and applied research and in developing state-of-the-art technologies, in particular, in the field of modern life sciences and biotechnologies, declares with full responsibility and conviction that Ukraine has not been developing any types of biological weapons – either themselves or their delivery means. Research into developing biological weapons is not and was never conducted in Ukraine, even in the times of the USSR. Also, biological weapons storage facilities were never located on the territory of Ukraine, in contrast to the Russian Federation, which inherited from the USSR the infrastructure of numerous institutions that had been developing biological weapons and producing them from various pathogens of bacterial and viral origins, had stockpiled bioweapons in huge amounts and had been elaborating their delivery means.
Research works in medicine and biology carried out for peaceful purposes are well known at the NAS of Ukraine. Scientists who are conducting them as well as respective laboratories involved in studying the problems of virology, microbiology, molecular biology, immunology and related disciplines are operating both at the National Academy of Sciences itself and at other national sectoral academies and/or institutions under the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine etc. What is more, state experts of the NAS of Ukraine annually see and check the research plans of both NAS institutions and those of other ministries, agencies and state-run academies.
Ukraine carefully fulfills its obligations as a member state and signatory of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons (Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of the Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction).
It is clear for any conscientious person knowledgeable in the biological issues – both in the RF and in other countries – that the practical infeasibility of developing biological weapons in Ukraine also results from the absence of biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories, which are necessary for working with especially dangerous microorganisms, as well as even BSL-3 ones, intended for the work with less pathogenic microorganisms like SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. It is due to the absence of BSL-3 laboratories in this state that the development of vaccines against COVID-19 by NAS scientists slowed down in 2020-2021. Given the above, the NAS of Ukraine states that any allegations against Ukraine of running the laboratories that develop biological weapons are groundless and absurd.
All the abovementioned considerations also apply to the development of chemical weapons in this state. Ukraine completely supports the provisions of the conventions on the prohibition of both biological and chemical weapons and fully adheres to the clauses of conventions on the prohibition of all types of mass destruction weapons.