Comicomment: What is the purpose of U.S. research in Ukraine-based biolabs?

(JohnLee)

(ECNS) -- The recent revelation of the U.S. biological military activities in Ukraine has sparked widespread concerns.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it has official documentation proving that 30 Ukrainian laboratories were involved in military biological activities.

According to Kirillov, chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, 16,000 biological samples have been exported to the United States and its allies from Ukraine.

For example, he said, 4,000 blood samples were taken from servicemen in Lviv, Kharkov, Odessa and Kyiv to study the prevalence of antibodies to hantavirus.

"There is an absolute requirement for stringent confidence-building investigations into what the United States was doing, so that the world can be confident that the United States operates within the framework" of the BTWC, said Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq and former U.S. Marine Crops Intelligence officer, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

What is the purpose of U.S. research in Ukraine-based biolabs? Has the U.S. conducted dangerous research banned at home in labs overseas including in Ukraine? The international community has major concerns over these issues. The best way for the U.S. to prove its innocence is to open up for international scrutiny.