UNITED NATIONS (NYTIMES) - The United Nations Security Council was once again the stage for a confrontation between Russia and the United States on Friday (March 18) over allegations of a biological weapons programme, which the UN said does not exist in Ukraine.
Russia called the emergency meeting to renew its accusations that the US supported and funded a biological weapons programme in laboratories in Ukraine. Russia said it had discovered new documents with signatures from a Pentagon official and shared the evidence with council members and the General Assembly.
The US denied the allegations, repeating an assertion that Russia was spreading disinformation and propaganda as well as using false claims of biological weapons as justification for launching its own attack on Ukraine. The US has said it has "proudly" partnered with laboratories in Ukraine for medical research.
"Russia has repeatedly - repeatedly - accused other countries of the very violations it plans to perpetrate," said US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. "We continue to believe it is possible that Russia may be planning to use chemical or biological agents against the Ukrainian people."
Last week, Russia called a meeting at the Security Council under the pretext of international peace and security and made similar allegations.
The UN chief for disarmament affairs Izumi Nakamitsu addressed the Council in the meetings last week and on Friday and said the organisation was not aware of "any such biological weapons programme" in Ukraine. Ms Nakamitsu said Ukraine and Russia were signatories to a convention banning the production, storage and use of biological and chemical weapons.
Britain's ambassador to the UN and other European Union allies on the Security Council slammed Russia for what they called a "desperate" attempt at promoting false narratives to distract from its isolation after waging an unprovoked war against Ukraine. Russia had attempted and then cancelled a vote for a resolution on humanitarian aid because none of the other 14 members of the Council were willing to co-sponsor or vote in favour of it, said diplomats.
Some diplomats said in a statement that Russia has a proven track record of using chemical weapons against dissidents.
"It has used them itself in the UK and on its own territory in targeted assassination attempts. By inventing an alternative reality, it seeks to hide its responsibility and cover up its own crimes," said France's ambassador to the UNNicolas de Riviere.
Diplomats said Russia's circulated roster of evidence was 69 pages, and although they believed the information was fabricated, they would still read it. China has maintained that Russia's "revelations" about biological weapons in Ukraine must be investigated. On Friday, they called again for the US to provide transparent answers to ease concerns.
"Our partners are in complete denial. They won't accept we are presenting facts not just propaganda," said Russia's ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya. "They refuse to recognise that we presented a new set of evidence today."
As the Security Council remained at an impasse on taking action that would legally bind Russia to end the war, a delegation from Ukraine's civil society was meeting with diplomats, UN officials and journalists in New York.
They came from Ukraine to request more help on multiple fronts - providing military equipment, pressuring Russian diplomats for safe humanitarian aid passages and the presence of more international observers on the ground.
Ms Tetiana Pechonchyk, head of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA in Ukraine, said a coalition of about 20 organisations focused on human rights - with experience and training that met international criteria - was investigating and documenting the allegations of war crimes by Russia. One woman from the group jumped off the call in the middle of her conversation to rush into a shelter after hearing explosions nearby.
Ms Pechonchyk said the reports include attacks on civilian infrastructures and ambulances, killing and wounding civilians and children, looting, using people as human shields and, most recently, abduction of at least 25 activists, journalists and local government officials.
Mr Oleksandr Pavlichenko, director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, said Russian troops had entered a psychiatric hospital in the town of Borodyanka last week and occupied it for a week, forcing hundreds of patients to remain in their beds.
According to Mr Pavlichenko, Russian troops did not allow medical personnel to enter the building, patients did not have access to food and medicine and the hospital's basic services were disrupted.
