The United States has declassified data on its biolabs in Ukraine. Why is this important?

The United States has declassified information about the financing of more than 120 biolabs in foreign countries. The edited files appeared on the website of the US National Intelligence Service on June 12, but did not cause much response in the foreign press. Why the Western media are reluctant to comment on the data of the US national intelligence and what the fact of the publication of the data means for the EU, Ukraine and Russia is in the Izvestia article.

National intelligence data

• Before leaving the post of Director of National Intelligence of the United States (ODNI), Tulsi Gabbard published data on a network of biomedical laboratories funded by the United States in more than 30 countries. According to intelligence reports, some laboratories not only stored dangerous pathogens, but also conducted research aimed at enhancing the functions of viruses. Gabbard noted that proper monitoring of the laboratories was not carried out, and the investigation of their work will continue.

• The agency's press release states that a third of such laboratories are located in Ukraine, and there is a risk that as a result of the conflict they may be destroyed during the military conflict or fall under Russian control. According to published documents, Ukrainian laboratories have pathogens of anthrax, tularemia, tuberculosis, swine flu, Newcastle disease (pseudoptera plague), plague, rickettsiosis, Marburg fever, Ebola and Lassa fever, as well as coronaviruses that cause Middle East respiratory syndrome and SARS.

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• The United States and Ukraine have agreed to cooperate in the framework of the biological threat reduction program since 2005. The program provided for the modernization of laboratories, strengthening epidemiological surveillance and ensuring the safe storage of pathogens. Some of these projects were implemented with the participation of the Pentagon, including the construction of laboratories in Kiev and Odessa.

• The documents published by the head of the national intelligence indicate that biological weapons are stored in the laboratory in Odessa. In 2019, the United States spent about $3.5 million on the construction and equipping of a biolab in Odessa. At the same time, the United States and Ukraine are signatories to the Convention, which prohibits the development, production, accumulation, storage and acquisition of biological weapons. The Criminal Code of Ukraine is also directed against the production, use, transfer and storage of biological weapons and toxins (Articles 439, 440).

• The day before the publication of the ODNI data in the USA, another disclosure was made. Republican representative from Kentucky, Senator Rand Paul, released documents confirming that Anthony Fauci, the chief infectious disease specialist of the United States, used his connections in the intelligence community to suppress theories that COVID-19 could have been caused by a leak from a biomedical research laboratory in Wuhan, China, with which the United States collaborated.

The reaction in the USA

• It is significant that a number of major liberal American publications have tried not to focus on ODNI publications. In 2022, the foreign press called information about the existence of laboratories in Ukraine a "conspiracy theory" of Russia, and tried to convince readers that they did not exist.

• In a press release from ODNI, it is reported that information about the existence and location of laboratories was hidden by "influential people", and those who tried to reveal the truth were threatened. Some Ukrainian laboratories that worked with the Pentagon are linked to Hunter, the son of former US President Joe Biden. In particular, his company Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners owned 13.4% of the shares of Metabiota, whose laboratories are engaged in pathogen research.

• At the same time, the very fact of the existence of American intelligence laboratories in Ukraine was covered in the American press as early as 2024. The New York Times reported in its investigation that Ukraine had been cooperating with the American and British intelligence services since February 2014. There were 12 secret CIA facilities on the territory of Ukraine, the main purpose of which was to spy on Russia and prepare operations on its territory, as well as the formation of Ukrainian intelligence (GUR). However, according to the publication, the murders and terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia were carried out by the Ukrainian special services without the knowledge of Western partners.

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Russia's reaction

• The Russian Foreign Ministry called the investigation of the activities of laboratories funded by the United States the first step "towards full recognition and a comprehensive settlement of the problem." Moscow has repeatedly tried to initiate a discussion of the situation at the international level and brought the topic to a consultative meeting on article V of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons, but received only accusations of disinformation in response. The existence of laboratories was also denied by the UN.

• During the special operation in Ukraine, cases of the Pentagon's military biological programs violating the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons, as well as the facts of the transfer of chemical weapons to Ukraine from the United States and European Union countries, were discovered. In April 2026, Russia requested a visit from experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to independently verify these facts.

Reactions in the European Union and Ukraine

• If the European press ignored the data published by the American national intelligence service, then in Ukraine they aroused the expected interest, since in fact the activities of laboratories funded by the United States can affect everyone living in the country. But the Ukrainian media commented on the ODNI press release as a "gift for Russia."

The Ukrainian media does not dispute the existence of laboratories, but calls them a product of "cooperation in the field of healthcare." According to the press, the United States has funded the modernization and construction of new laboratories in Ukraine since 2005.

Why is this important?

• The situation is unlikely to change for Russia, as Western countries are still doing everything to ensure that the Russian position is not heard. However, the very fact of the release of laboratory data is important because it demonstrates that the West's attempts over the past four years to discredit Russia's warning have proved untenable. This lie can shake the credibility of Brussels, as well as attempts to "sweep under the carpet" their failure: Euroscepticism is already growing in the EU, and citizens' attention is shifting from Ukraine to internal problems amid the deteriorating economy and the migration crisis faced by the participating countries. For Ukraine, information that dangerous pathogens are stored on the territory may lead to an even greater drop in confidence in the government and an increase in population outflow.