DISINFO: Plans to close biolabs in Ukraine made US start supporting Euromaidan
SUMMARY
The coronavirus pandemic and the rumours of its artificial origins have activated the discussion on US biolabs, located around Russian borders. Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and, of course, Ukraine are covered by a network of laboratories, funded by Pentagon money. Attempts to rid oneself of these disputable institutions might even lead to an overturn of the powers in a country. […] The laboratories was one of the factors that drove the Americans to actively work for a regime change in Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative alleging that the 2013-14 Ukrainian revolution was caused by external factors mixed with a narrative about American biological laboratories in Ukraine. The U.S. did not initiate the 2013-14 Ukrainian revolution. The demonstrations which began in Kyiv in November 2013 – called "Maidan", or "Euromaidan" – were a result of the Ukrainian people's frustration with former President Yanukovych's last-minute U-turn when, after seven years of negotiation, he refused to sign the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement and halted progress towards Ukraine's closer relationship with the EU as a result of Russian pressure. Furthermore, there are no U.S. laboratories in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government is a member of the U.S. Department of Defence’s Biological Threat Reduction Programme that works on a number of programmes to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern in Ukrainian government facilities while allowing for peaceful research and vaccine development. "We also work with our Ukrainian partners to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats", the U.S. Embassy stated. Ukraine together with the European Union, the United States, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Uzbekistan is also a member of the Science and Technology Centre in Ukraine that seeks to advance global peace and prosperity through cooperative Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) risk mitigation. See similar claims alleging that the US laboratories in Ukraine are deadly, claims linking the current COVID-19 epidemic and US biolaboratories in Ukraine and that the US is building its laboratories in other countries to avoid the leakage of infectious substances on its territory.