The Pentagon didn’t ‘admit’ that there are 46 US-funded biolabs in Ukraine

The Pentagon released a new fact sheet about the government’s efforts to lessen the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine, Russia and other former Soviet countries — and internet conspiracy theorists took off running.

While the document largely repeats information about the programs’ accomplishments and efforts over the last several years, that didn’t stop some internet users from claiming that it contained a bombshell admission.

"US Department of Defense Finally Comes Clean – Admits in Public Document that There Are 46 US Military-Funded Biolabs in Ukraine," a June 12 Gateway Pundit headline read.

"US asked to explain after Pentagon admits to operating 46 biolabs in Ukraine after months of denial," read another June 12  headline by the Morning Star, a socialist newspaper published in Great Britain.

But these are mischaracterizations. The document doesn’t contain any evidence — new or otherwise — of U.S. biolabs in Ukraine. 

The 46 facilities referenced in the articles and in the government’s fact sheet are owned and operated by Ukraine, and information about the facilities’ existence has been made publicly available by the Pentagon for some time.

The stories were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

When Russia first invaded Ukraine in February, false claims took hold online that Russian President Vladimir Putin was targeting the country over its alleged abundance of U.S.-run biological weapons laboratories. At one point, the claims took on a new twist as some alleged that President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, had funded the supposed labs. 

But fabricated stories from Russia proclaiming bioweapon use by the U.S. aren’t new, and allegations of a network of such labs along Russia’s border were shared in its state-run media before the invasion.

PolitiFact reached out to the Pentagon for comment but did not hear back.

Since 2005, the U.S. has partnered with Ukraine through the Pentagon’s Biological Threat Reduction Program. The purpose is "to support peaceful and safe biological detection and diagnostic capabilities and to reduce the threats posed by pathogens," according to a March 2022 government fact sheet.

Andy Weber, a member of the Arms Control Association Board of Directors and a former assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs, previously told us there are no U.S. military-run labs in Ukraine but rather health labs to help detect, prevent and mitigate infectious disease.

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The Defense Department’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program "has provided technical support to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health since 2005 to improve public health laboratories, whose mission is analogous to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," Weber said. 

Also known as the Nunn-Lugar program, the initiative began after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as a project aimed at dismantling and securing leftover weapons of mass destruction programs in former Soviet countries.

The Pentagon hasn’t said anything new about the 46 facilities — we reported about them in April. In fact, the June 9 release at the center of these claims specifically states that Ukraine "has no nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons programs."

With regard to the 46 facilities, the government fact sheet said the U.S. has:

"Worked collaboratively to improve Ukraine’s biological safety, security, and disease surveillance for both human and animal health, providing support to 46 peaceful Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and disease diagnostic sites over the last two decades. The collaborative programs have focused on improving public health and agricultural safety measures at the nexus of nonproliferation." 

In March, the Pentagon said much of the same, adding that the program has invested about $200 million in Ukraine, "supporting 46 laboratories, health facilities and diagnostic sites" and that it has "improved Ukraine’s biological safety, security and surveillance for both human and animal health." 

While the U.S. is providing support for Ukraine, the labs are owned and operated by the Ukrainian government, Robert Pope, director of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Department, previously told PolitiFact.

"Specifically, we make the labs more secure from accidental or intentional release, provide diagnostic equipment, train personnel on the use of the equipment, and train them how to detect potential outbreaks," Pope said. "DTRA not only does this with Ukraine, but also with partners in over 30 countries, at their request, to assist with safe disease detection and diagnosis." 

A Gateway Pundit article said, "US Department of Defense Finally Comes Clean – Admits in Public Document that There Are 46 US Military-Funded Biolabs in Ukraine."

There was no "coming clean" — and the government made no such admission. 

The document referenced in the stories repeated known information about 46 Ukrainian-owned-and-operated laboratories, health facilities and diagnostic sites that have received support from the U.S. The document specifically states that Ukraine "has no nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons programs."

We rate this claim False.

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