Did America have biowarfare labs in Ukraine?

 

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Reuters. 

The United States has rejected claims that they had bioweapons research labs in Ukraine. Reuters. The US government dismissed the claims, which were raised by Russia. Russia claims that they captured documents that showed Ukraine was destroying samples of plague, anthrax, cholera and other pathogens. The US denies these allegations but Ukraine did have biolabs in the country that was receiving assistance from the United States. The US has accused Russia of brining up the issue as a prelude to a chemical weapons attack, despite chemical and biological weapons being two different things. 

My Comment:

The US Government denials here are really a matter of semantics. The truth of the matter is that there is little difference than a biowarfare lab and legitimate research lab if they are working with deadly pathogens. Developing a bioweapon isn't that different than trying to stop a bioweapon. The technology is basically the same. 

That being said, I don't believe that these labs were actually producing bioweapons. My guess is that the labs are for peaceful purposes. Not that bioweapons being illegal stops anything but I doubt any weapons research would be in Ukraine of all places. The country was unstable and had a high chance of this exact scenario happening. 

Besides, if America was going to outsource their bioweapons research, they would just do it with China instead. We already know they did that with Coronavirus research in the Wuhan labs. Those labs have been confirmed to be doing gain of function research and it's likely that the Coronavirus pandemic was caused by a lab leak from one of those labs. 

Of course even peaceful research was a major issue in a war zone. If these labs are damaged or destroyed it could lead to another pandemic. I sincerely hope that all the pathogens in these labs were destroyed before hand. We honestly got lucky with the Coronavirus, there could be much worse viruses in these labs that could escape.

As for the possibility of a chemical attack, it just seems like an obvious case of misdirection. Though I don't think there was any actual bioweapons being developed in these labs, as I have said peaceful research and weapons research isn't that different in the first place. The Russians have a point even if they aren't telling the truth either. And again, chemical and biological weapons are two totally different things so the entire argument is a non-sequitur. 

But an actual chemical weapons attack? I think it's unlikely. I don't think Russia cares about public opinion that much but I don't think anyone would defend them, even their allies in China, Belarus and the Middle East, would still support them if they launched a major chemical weapons attack. Indeed, it could be considered a casus belli for a new war between Russia and NATO. 

And I also don't think that it would actually help them win the war. Keep in mind the Russians are doing a lot better than the Western media is portraying it. They are already winning so why take on the risks of using chemical weapons?