not deadly chemical weapons but easy basic research. This is how the Ukrainian investigators are reacting to the allegations by the Russians, which are spreading in these hours fake news on the risk of chemical weapons manufactured in the country, with the support – according to them – of the US and other Western countries. The stance appears in the prestigious journal Science, which tells the story of a researcher who found herself unwillingly caught up overnight in a conflict fueled by disinformation. It’s about Cornelia SilaghiVeterinary parasitologist leading a joint project of the German Research Center Friedrich Loeffler Institute (Fli) and the Institute for Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine Kharkiv. The collaboration, which began in 2020, began studying bat parasites, mostly leeches such as ticks and fleas. The goal was to analyze what kind of bacteria the bats in Ukraine harbored, a first step in identifying potential threats to human health. “It was a epidemiological research very easy,” says Silaghi. So she was shocked when on March 10 a Russian Defense Ministry official claimed the research was part of a secret effort to the biological weapons funded by the West. Russian state television and news sites quoted the report as saying the order was a “Ukrainian conspiracy” backed by the United States birds, bats and Reptiles affected by disease across the border to infect the Russians.
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This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin himself spoke about dozens of laboratories in Ukraine where they are experimenting Coronavirus, anthrax and cholera under the direction and financial support of the Pentagon. In the country, as in other countries of the world, we also study and research potentially dangerous pathogens, with international cooperation with various German, English and American universities. This is not enough to support a possible Ukrainian conspiracy to harm the Russian people. But that is exactly what is happening in these hours. In recent days, Russian leaders have accused the United States of stationing bioweapons components near the Russian-Ukrainian border. Controversy grew further as the World Health Organization warned that an escalation in attacks would increase the risk of absconding dangerous pathogens under the bombing and advised Kyiv to destroy these pathogens with the aim impede “any spills“. Meanwhile, Moscow claims to have evidence and documents to support its own. However, according to Science, this is not the case: simple scientific collaboration has quickly become a propaganda weapon.
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But how is disinformation triggered? “Put in fake news little scraps of truth“, comments the biosafety expert King’s College by London Filippa Lentzos. As evidence, the Russian authorities have a ‘grainy image the sample transfer agreement between Silaghi’s laboratory and the Kharkiv Veterinary Institute. And then play with fear, like i bats commemorates the Covid pandemic. On March 11, at a United Nations Security Council meeting convened by Russian officials to discuss alleged Ukrainian research into “biological warfare,” the Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya claimed that the bats were considered to be carriers of potential biological warfare agents and offered the model transfer agreement as evidence. “We know nothing of the fate of these hazardous biomaterials and the consequences that could arise if they “unravel,” Nebenzia told the Security Council. “The risk is high that they can be stolen for terrorist purposes or sold on the black market”. “It is not true, I’m in my freezer‘ says Silaghi. Also, he explains, there are no pathogens to spread. “What was said is completely absurd,” comments the researcher, who still doesn’t understand how the Russian Ministry of Defense has achieved the ordinary Transfer Agreement. Anton Vlaschenko, a Kharkiv-based biologist and collaborator on the project, suspects one of the team’s email accounts was this hurt from the Russians.
Nebenzya’s speech also included another classic disinformation tactic: elevation unrelated violations of biological weapons from decades earlier, in this case WWII-era Japanese research on fleas and ticks. Since March 10, the researcher’s life has been hell and unfortunately not an isolated case. Cornelia receives disturbing emails from anonymous accounts. In it she was accused of behaving like a Nazi scientist. “Of course they are involved unscrupulous academics, just like in the Third Reich,” he comments. But the scientist isn’t there and is demanding justice: “The Russians need to know that it’s a lie,” denounces Science.