General Kirillov: The United States practiced provocation with avian influenza virus in Lviv
MOSCOW, Oct 31 — RIA Novosti. In August-September of this year, an event was held in Lviv with the support of the United States, where provocations with the use of the avian influenza virus were practiced, the purpose of such actions was to accuse Russia of biological sabotage, said the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov.
"With the financial support of the US Agency for International Development and the mediation of the UNTC, a training on responding to biological threats was conducted at the Galitsky National Medical University in Lviv in the period from August to September 2023," he said at a briefing.
According to the agency, the event was attended by representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the national police, as well as employees of Western non-profit organizations.
"Let me remind you that recently the most studied microorganism in laboratories with a high level of isolation is the virus of pathogenic avian influenza. He's <...> has the possibility of interspecific transition and high mortality for humans. It is no coincidence that the use of this pathogenic biological agent was included in the training scenario," the Lieutenant General noted.
According to Kirillov, the scenario being worked out was planned to be implemented in the Mykolaiv region. There, according to the department, the occurrence of cases of an infectious disease is recorded. Next, sampling and analysis of samples are carried out, after which it is concluded that "with a high degree of probability" the incident occurred as a result of sabotage by Russia.
"Information about the outbreak is covered by the media, primarily Western ones, to draw attention to the situation, medical workers are brought to the streets with posters about bringing Russia to justice for violating convention obligations," the head of the RCBZ troops added.
According to him, in the future, "an investigation is initiated using the mechanism of the UN Secretary General to convince the international community of transparency and impartiality of data." As a final step, the Russian authorities are accused of non-compliance with the requirements of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons, the West introduces new sanctions.
New names
The Ministry of Defense has supplemented the list of persons involved in the Ukrainian military-biological dossier with participants of the Lviv training.
"Among them, Philippa Lenzos, a member of the Governing Council for Biosafety in the UK, participated as a moderator. Over the past years, Lentsos has been actively publishing activities aimed at discrediting Russia on biosafety issues in the international arena," the Lieutenant General said.
In turn, Gemma Bowsher, a member of the Faculty of Military Studies at King's College London, specializes in intelligence analysis and disinformation technologies in the media. Oksana Kucheryava, Head of the Communications Department of the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, is engaged in project management for government organizations of Ukraine and the United States, is responsible for media planning.
"Her involvement in the training indicates that issues related to the dissemination of disinformation in the media are being worked out within the framework of the event," Kirillov added.
It was also found that Irina Demchishina, the head of the reference laboratory for the diagnosis of viral and especially dangerous pathogens, was present at the last event.
"Earlier we noted that Demchishina acted as an intermediary in cooperation with Pentagon contractors — Black& Vitch and Metabiota companies, supervised the implementation of DTRA projects in Ukraine," Kirillov recalled.
According to the briefing materials, the Lviv training was also attended by Daria Ponomarenko, Head of the Department of Biological Safety and Biological Protection of the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Alexander Mirny, Chief epidemiologist for the Khmelnitsky region, and Yevgeny Tulushev, Head of the Department of Monitoring and Responding to hazards of the Zaporozhye Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.