Russian propaganda has been producing fakes about “bioweapon labs” in Ukraine for years, and some of them have already been debunked by our team (case in point). This time, Telegram posters made a video with a Bloomberg logo that seems to say that USAID lost control over biological labs in Ukraine in 2022. Our fact-checking department debunked this fake. The Bloomberg material Telegram authors are referring to is fake.
What happened?
On Feb 4, pro-Russian Telegram channels that regularly spread Russian propaganda, in particular Кот Костян – официальный канал (“Kostian cat – official channel”), Медведь (“Bear”), Одесса Zа Победу! (“Odessa for victory”) and others posted a video with a Bloomberg logo.
In a video, they’re saying that starting in 2020, the American USAID organization invested $20 billion to create and develop laboratories in Ukraine. But after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, authors say, USAID have supposedly lost control over those biolabs, which respectively led to the loss of investments.
The video presents a remark from the former United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown Jr., who supposedly says, “This case ranks as the second-largest single loss of U.S. money and U.S. property since the U.S. Armed Forces withdrew from Afghanistan. Once again, we lost everything overnight.”
The news was spread on X (1, 2) and on Russian social media VKontakte (1, 2).
Analysis
First, we’ve looked through the content posted on the official resources of international media agency Bloomberg: their official website and social media accounts on Х, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube (1, 2), and Linkedin.
We found out that neither the agency published a video nor the news Telegram authors quoted.
At the same time, in the video attached to Telegram posts, there are graphic elements and animations that haven’t been used by Bloomberg for a long time. Media company updated their logo and video graphics.
Next, we did frame-by-frame analysis of the video. Turns out, the video was combined from publicly available photo and video, e.g. fragments of President Zelenskyy’s meeting with the head of USAID Samantha Power and photo of the United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and others.
We also discovered the original video, which was (partially) used by Telegram authors.
On the video in Telegram, Charles K. Braun supposedly comments on the existence of biolabs and USA’s loss of investments.
The original video was released in October 2023 and doesn’t contain any mentions of biolabs or Ukraine. There, Charles K. Braun recounts the reasons for his enlistment into the army, the difficulties of his service, and his desire to change the American army for the better.
Ukraine is one of the countries that collaborates with the US within the Biological Threat Reduction Program, but it’s not connected to the development of biological weapons. The biological Threat Reduction Program’s goal is to counter biological threats through a “bio-threat reduction mission through development of a bio-risk management culture; international research partnerships; and partner capacity for enhanced bio-security, bio-safety, and bio-surveillance measures.”
Despite Russia’s claims that these are “secret” laboratories, details about the U.S. program are available on the U.S. Embassy’s website, and the current agreement with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health is publicly accessible on the Ukrainian government’s legal portal at zakon.rada.gov.ua.
In response to allegations by top Russian officials and the Russian Defense Ministry about laboratory experiments to produce biological weapons, the governments of ten countries — the United States, Armenia, Georgia, Iraq, Jordan, Liberia, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Ukraine — issued a joint statement in August 2022, debunking Kremlin propaganda about such weapons being developed in these labs. The statement was published on the U.S. State Department’s website.
Conclusion: Fake
Author: Anna Ormanzhy
Read more
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