During Moscow's special operation, launched in Ukraine on 24 February, the Russian armed forces have so far found 30 bio laboratories in the country that were fulfilling orders from the US Department of Defence and involved in the production of biological weapons.

Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has claimed that a bioweapon developed in Ukraine has a negative impact on the reproductive system of women and the immunity of "certain ethnic groups", including the ethnically Russian population of the country.

"This weapon affects both the reproductive function of women of a certain nationality, and the immune system of a particular ethnic group in general. It causes allergies, intolerance to traditional food, and susceptibility to diseases, which, in turn, leads to a weakening of the nation's immunity and its extinction without the impact of wars", he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Rogozin recalled that from March 2017 to April 2018 he was at the helm of a government commission on biological and chemical safety, a panel that he said often dealt with the issue of the US "encircling" Russia with its biological laboratories.

The Roscosmos chief also pointed out that Russian authorities know perfectly well that the goal of the Pentagon's biological experiments, which involve "biomaterials obtained from Slav test subjects of Ukraine and other countries neighbouring Russia is to develop an 'ethnic weapon' against the country's ethnically Russian population".

Russian MoD Says US Biolabs Meant to Create Bioagents Targeting Certain Ethnic Groups

Rogozin's remarks come after the Russian Defence Ministry revealed earlier this month that one of the goals of the biological research laboratories in Ukraine suspected of having been funded by the US was the creation of bioagents capable of targeting certain ethnic groups.

Igor Kirillov, the head of the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops of the Russian armed forces stated that "the available documents confirm numerous cases of the transfer of biological samples of Ukrainian citizens abroad". According to him, "with a high degree of probability, we can say that one of the tasks of the US and its allies is the creation of bioagents that can selectively affect various ethnic groups of the population".

Kirillov stressed that the Russian Defence Ministry had obtained documents confirming that the high-risk biological research in Ukraine was led by US specialists. He added that the documents also showed that the US Defence Department funded the biological research in Ukraine, spending over $200 million to study pathogens of birds, bats, and reptiles in Ukraine and the possibility of transmission of African swine fever and anthrax through these animals.

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland previously admitted that "Ukraine has biological research facilities", saying that Washington was "working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach". She, however, did not elaborate on whether Washington took part in the biological research in Ukraine.