Washington, March 10: Russia could possibly use chemical weapons in Ukraine, warned White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday amid the ongoing conflict between the two neighbouring countries. Psaki also slammed Russia for its false claims of alleged development of biological weapons labs and chemical weapons by US.
In a series of tweets, she wrote, “We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged US biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine. We’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.” “This is preposterous,” she said adding that, “It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent”.
We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine. We’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) March 9, 2022
Refuting Russia’s claims, Psaki asserted that, “The US is in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention and does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere.” She alleged Russia of using chemical weapons, poisoning Alexey Navalny, supporting the Assad regime in Syria and maintaining a biological weapons program.
“It’s Russia that has a long and well-documented track record of using chemical weapons, including in attempted assassinations and poisoning of Putin’s political enemies like Alexey Navalny,” she blamed. “It’s Russia that continues to support the Assad regime in Syria, which has repeatedly used chemical weapons”.
“It’s Russia that has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law,” She said, adding that “also, Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating. In December, Russia falsely accused the US of deploying contractors with chemical weapons in Ukraine”. “This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine”.
“Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern,” Psaki tweeted.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had warned earlier this year of the possibility of Russia carrying out a fake or real chemical weapons attack as a manufactured pretext for an invasion into Ukraine. But his comments came before Russia’s full invasion began, CNN reported. On Wednesday, the Russian Defence Ministry said Ukrainian forces had transported about 80 tons of ammonia to Zolochiv, Kharkiv, BBC said.
On Tuesday, Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told a congressional hearing in Washington the US was helping Ukrainian authorities protect biological research facilities in the country from potentially being seized by the Russians, they added. UNI
