Whatever You Do, Don’t Call Them Biolabs!

As Vladimir Putin’s bloody campaign to conquer Ukraine approaches its fourth week, a new variable has complicated the crisis: bioweapons. Russian propagandists have alleged that Ukraine coordinated with the United States to “develop ethnically targeted biological weapons” — whatever that means — near the Russian border. Chinese propagandists amplified the Russian claims, alleging that the United States secretly controls 336 biological research laboratories in 30 countries around the world. The United States, for our part, has dismissed the allegations as “malarkey” and “disinformation.” But now it seems our own propagandists have played just as fast and loose with the facts as have our enemies overseas.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has long denied the existence of the labs. The Kyiv Post reported one such denial over two years ago. “Recently, ‘fake news’ about the alleged activities of American military biological laboratories in Ukraine has been spread in the media and social networks,” the SBU complained. “No foreign biological laboratories operate in Ukraine. Statements recently made by individual politicians are not true and are a deliberate distortion of the facts.” The left-wing “fact-checking” website Politifact similarly concluded, “There are no US-run biolabs in Ukraine, contrary to social media posts.” But while there may not be any “foreign” or “US-run” laboratories on Ukrainian soil, “U.S.-funded” labs do in fact exist, as the State Department admitted last week.