Is Ukraine responsible for COVID and plague?
Ever since the Kremlin escalated its war against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, there have been heavy fights on the ground. The Russian Army has been shelling cities, bombing residential areas, destroying schools and hospitals, and committing atrocities like the Bucha massacre.
But there is another war on the ground: the information war. Since the very first day of the war, and long before that too, the Russian government has been feeding its people lies as a part of their anti-Ukrainian propaganda.
The misinformation the Russian government shares include them saying they are conducting a “special operation” (and not a war) in Ukraine because they “need to free the Ukrainian people from nazis both in the government and outside of it.” Obviously, that’s a lie. Also, what Nazis are you talking about when the president of Ukraine is Jewish and a grandson of a Holocaust survivor?
There are many false claims the Russian state-owned media perpetuates. But the one I love the most is their claim that they discovered secret laboratories working on biological weapons development upon entering Ukraine. The kicker is that those laboratories are allegedly sanctioned and controlled by the United States.
Let’s dive into this fake news, get the details and figure out where they came from.
What Do Russian Media Outlets Say Exactly?
According to the Russian media, the Russian troops found secret bio-labs in Ukraine. Those labs were working on bioweapons development, and they are owned by the United States and allowed by the Ukrainian government.
Here are links to the sources, Russian government-controlled news outlets — you are welcome to use Google Translate. This source claims the Russian army discovered bio labs in Kharkiv and Poltava.
The next media outlet is even more creative: they claim Ukrainians have been developing plague, Siberian plague and cholera in the secret bio-labs. And this site reports that Ukrainian labs have been working on coronavirus, which has escaped the laboratories and ended up in Europe.
Russian news also claims that Ukrainians have been training pigeons to fly to Russia and spread viruses; the lie about labs isn’t even the most creative one.
What Happens When You Apply Logic?
Okay, let’s pretend that the United States does, in fact, have laboratories where scientists work on super-secret bioweapons.
I do not doubt that many countries have such sites, especially those fighting for world dominance (wink-wink at you, China, United States. the United Kingdom, France, and Russia). But there’s a problem associated with the Russian news claiming they found bio labs controlled by Americans in Kharkiv and other cities in Ukraine.
Here’s what happens when you apply logical thinking
It means the United States government chose to open secret laboratories not on American soil over which it has control; but in a foreign country that’s very, very far away. Ukraine is almost 5,000 miles away from New York. And yet, the American government came up with a genius idea to set up secret facilities far away, meaning they have no physical control.
The United States has military bases all over the world. But it has none in Ukraine. Turkey hosts 13 American military bases, and Germany is home to 119. Ukraine has zero. So, by the Russian genius logic, Americans decided to work on biological weapons in a country which they could in no way control with their military.
The USA also has a bunch of warships around the world. And yet, there is none of them near Ukraine. The closest warship is the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, that’s currently in the Mediterranean, 1,700 miles away. I wouldn’t call it close.
Therefore, Americans chose to start a secret operation of developing potentially dangerous biological weapons while having absolutely no way to access, control or remove the labs if such a need arises — for example if a war starts. Oh yeah, that scenario already happened.
The United States government made a super smart and incredibly logical decision to situate the secret bio labs in the city of Kharkiv near the Russian border. That’s 25 km or 15 miles away from Russia. What a perfect location for a biological weapon laboratory, eh? Not on the very west of Ukraine, somewhere near Europe and far away from the other superpower that already invaded Ukraine in 2014. Since that happened, the United States government decided to keep their secret labs in the very east of Ukraine for the last eight years, knowing that Russia’s war against Ukraine may escalate at any time. Presidents Obama, Trump, Biden, and all their advisors looked at Ukraine and went:
“Nah, there’s no need to move the bio labs far away. Let them sit next to Russia, it’s all good.”
When Russia attacked Ukraine this February, the American government also decided there was no need to cease the bioweapons development and destroy all the evidence. And even month preceding the war, seeing that Putin had been moving his army closer to the Ukrainian border, Biden was like:
“Meh, let the labs stay. Let the labs that are only 15 miles from the Russian army keep working on our weapons. It’s going to be all good.”
Instead of wrapping up the operations as quickly as possible, Americans decided to keep the laboratories active — despite all the constant shelling of Kharkiv and the battle for the city, which is still ongoing as I’m writing this.
Why would the American government evacuate the scientists and remove the lab when missiles were flying around? Nah, no need. They patiently waited for the Russian army to discover it and share the truth with the world.
There you have it! The American government’s genius plan to develop biological weapons. They set up the secret facilities far away from their soil, next to the Russian border, and made no effort to shut the operations down and get rid of the evidence as Putin’s army marched into Kharkiv. Good job, Biden! And Trump, and possibly many presidents before that.
Obviously, all this is fabricated misinformation shared by the Russian propaganda. The problem is that I know many Russian people who believe it. Not only older folks who watch the TV and don’t bother checking what the Internet has to offer, but younger people as well.
I don’t know how dumb you need to be to believe this nonsense. Even someone with a half of a brain understands it’s a complete lie. It sounds more like a joke than a fact, but if you ask me, that’s what the Russian state-controlled media is: a joke.
And yet, 53 to 68% of Russians believe the propaganda and support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The United Nations published a statement saying there are no signs of dangerous Biolabs in Ukraine. The United States government does have a special project with Ukraine: Biological Threat Reduction Program that was set up in 2016 and advertized publicly on the news. But it certainly has no connection to plague, COVID-19, or other horrible pathogens. It’s also not training pigeons to spread diseases from Ukraine to Russia.
Conclusion
As a Ukrainian-born individual, I spent the last two months in touch with my friends and family in Ukraine. Every day and every hour, I check on them and make sure they’re okay. The resilience of the Ukrainian people is mind-boggling. I don’t think I’m nearly as brave as they are.
According to my friends and every Ukrainian channel and media outlet I follow, the Russian news turned into a joke for Ukrainians from the first days of the war. Putin blocked access to BBC News, Facebook and other foreign platforms for Russians, shut down media outlets that aren’t government-controlled and implemented a new draconian law stating you can get up to 15 years in prison for sharing “fake” news. By “fake,” he means the new contradicting the state media. So, if you live in Russia and post online saying Ukraine doesn’t have any Biolabs, and it didn’t create the plague, you can potentially get up to 15 years in prison. Marvellous, isn’t it?
I hope none of my readers is in Russia. But in the event you are: please be careful what you say or post. God forbid you to claim that Ukraine isn’t training special pigeons to bring plague to Russia.
