UN Security Council Turns Down Moscow’s Resolution on U.S. Biolaboratories in Ukraine

The UN Security Council on Thursday rejected by a majority vote a resolution proposed by Russia to create a commission to investigate what Moscow calls “U.S. biolaboratory activities in Ukraine.” Last week, Russia circulated a document to Security Council members alleging that military biological research was being conducted in Ukraine with the participation of the U.S. Defense Department, violating the international convention banning the use of biological weapons, bbc.com reports. Among other things, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, claimed that Ukraine was hatching plans to use drones with mosquitoes infected with infectious diseases against Russia. As a result, the draft resolution did not receive the necessary nine votes out of 15. Russia and China voted in favor of the resolution, the U.S., Britain, and France voted against it, and the rest abstained. “We regret that our Western colleagues actually sabotaged the negotiation process of the draft resolution,” Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said afterwards. “It has become clear that Western countries are simply afraid of setting up a commission to review and investigate the materials submitted by Russia.” The accusations that the Americans were conducting military biological research in Ukrainian laboratories were made by Moscow shortly after the invasion of Ukraine. In particular, Nebenzya claimed that the seized documents allegedly showed that the Americans were working with strains of such deadly diseases as plague and cholera and were studying the possibility of spreading infections through birds and bats. In September, representatives of 197 signatory countries of the Biological Weapons Convention met at Russia’s request to examine the biolaboratories in Ukraine and the research conducted there, but the final report said that they could not reach a consensus. U.S. representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the event “a colossal waste of time” and described Russia’s claims as “pure fabrications made without a shred of evidence”. Point