(New York) The United Nations Security Council scheduled a meeting on Friday at Russia’s request to discuss what Moscow claims are “US military biological activities on the territory of Ukraine,” allegations that the Biden administration has vehemently denied.
Posted yesterday at 10:49 PM.
“These are exactly the kinds of fake operations we’ve warned Russia could launch to justify an attack with biological or chemical weapons,” Olivia Dalton, a spokeswoman for the US mission to the United Nations, said Thursday evening. Russia psychologically manipulates the world or uses the United Nations Security Council as a venue to promote its disinformation. »
The Russian request, announced in a tweet Thursday afternoon by its first deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, followed the United States’ rejection of Russian accusations that Ukraine operates chemical and biological laboratories with US support.
In response to accusations this week — without evidence — Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki issued a public warning Wednesday that Russia may use chemical or biological weapons against Ukraine.
Mme Psaki called Russia’s claim “ridiculous” and wrote on Twitter: “This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify its new, premeditated, unprovoked and unprovoked attack on Ukraine.”
On Wednesday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby called the Russian claim a “chain of nonsense.”
Mme Dalton said that “Russia has a well-documented history of chemical weapons use and has long maintained a biological weapons program that violates international law” as well as a “record of false accusations from the West of the same abuses by Russia itself.” .
Dmitry Chumakov, another Russian deputy ambassador to the United Nations, reiterated the accusation on Wednesday and urged Western media to cover “news of secret biological laboratories in Ukraine.”
A tweet from the Russian Ministry of Defense, after Mr. Polyansky’s letter calling for a meeting of the Council, noted “a briefing on the results of the analysis of documents related to the military biological activities of the United States in the territory of Ukraine”.
The United Nations announced Thursday evening that the meeting will take place at 10 a.m. EDT. UN Disarmament Coordinator Izumi Nakamitsu and UN Political Coordinator Rosemary DiCarlo will brief the Council.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Thursday reiterated what he said on Wednesday – that the WHO working with the Ukrainian government “has said it is not aware of any activity by the Ukrainian government that interferes with its international treaty obligations, including chemical weapons or weapons”. biological.”
Months ago, the United States warned against Russian false flag operations to create a pretext for invasion.
White House warning mr.me Dalton indicated Thursday that Russia may be looking to create a pretext to further escalate the two-week-old conflict that has seen the Russian offensive slowed by stronger-than-expected Ukrainians.
The international community has believed for years that Russia used chemical weapons to carry out assassination attempts against Vladimir Putin’s enemies such as Alexei Navalny, who is now in a Russian prison, and former spy Sergei Skripal who lives in the kingdom. Russia also supports the Assad government in Syria, which used chemical weapons against its own people during the 11-year civil war.
The Security Council held its monthly meeting on Thursday on Syria’s chemical weapons with the Chief of Disarmament Mme Nakamitsu, criticizing the Syrian government for its repeated refusal to answer questions regarding the chemical weapons program and urging the Assad government to do so.
Last June, the head of the International Chemical Weapons Control Organization, Fernando Arias, said his experts had investigated 77 allegations against Syria and concluded that in 17 cases, chemical weapons might have been used, most likely or with certainty.
Mme Nakamitsu ended his statement on Thursday by saying: “The use of chemical weapons is a grave violation of international law and an affront to our common humanity.”
“We must remain vigilant to ensure that these horrific weapons are never used again, and are eliminated, not only in Syria, but everywhere,” she added.
Unfortunately, US Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills said that Syria was getting help from its Russian ally, who he said had “repeatedly spread misinformation about the repeated use of ‘chemical weapons’ by Syria”.
“The recent network of fake news that Russia launched in an attempt to justify the premeditated and unjustified war it launched against Ukraine should make it clear, once and for all, that Russia also cannot be trusted. Russia when it talks about the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Britain’s deputy ambassador, James Kariuki, told the council that the “similarities” between Russia’s work in Ukraine – “besieging cities and indiscriminate killing of civilians, and forcing millions to flee in search of security” – and its actions in Syria were “obvious”.
“Unfortunately, the comparison also extends to chemical weapons, where we see the familiar specter of Russian disinformation about chemical weapons hanging over its head in Ukraine,” he added.
