Russian military uncovered US-operated biolabs in Ukraine while conducting a special operation in the nation. Some very interesting findings in the form of list of Americans coordinating bioweapons research at Pentagon biolabs in Ukraine have been revealed as well.
On Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) released new files procured by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, which include communications between American financier Hunter Biden – the son of US President Joe Biden – and figures engaged in biological research in Ukraine that his investment company aided in financing.
The documents revealed an intent to create a “Central Depository of Especially Dangerous Microorganisms in Kiev,” according to Russian MoD spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, as well as ways to distribute biological agents via drone.
Russia’s MoD releases info on US involvement in Ukraine’s bioweapons research
© Photo : Russian Ministry of Defence
The emails disclosed the identities of numerous key American leaders from Metabiota and Black & Veatch, and also officials from the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), who were involved in biological research initiatives. Those named include:
Russia’s MoD releases info on US involvement in Ukraine’s bioweapons research
© Photo : Russian Ministry of Defence
Robert Pope
From 2017 to 2020, Pope served as the DTRA’s deputy director of operations, readiness, and exercises. He formerly worked at the Pentagon, the US Air Force European Command (USAFE), and the US Central Command (USCC). Pope was essential in the creation of radiochemical methods for monitoring international nuclear weapons treaties (Air Force Technical Application Center).
Between 2016 and 2019, Pope corresponded with Ukraine’s acting health minister, Ulana Suprun, an American-born Ukrainian who travelled to Ukraine to take part in the US-backed revolution in 2014.
Rhys M. Williams
Williams, who was formerly the agency’s director of development, test, and evaluation, ended up taking over for Pope as acting DTRA director in 2020. He oversaw the Pentagon’s project to establish capabilities for detecting, locating, and neutralizing foreign weapons of mass destruction and improvised explosive devices. Williams was also Assistant Deputy Administrator for Nonproliferation at the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is in charge of the country’s nuclear arsenal.
Joanna Wintrol
At the Defense Threat Reduction Office of the US Embassy in Kiev, Wintrol oversaw DTRA programs in Ukraine until 2021.
According to emails released by the Ministry of Defense, she oversaw projects such as the UP-2 Project for “mapping highly infectious diseases in Ukraine,” including anthrax; the UP-4 Project for “risk assessment of particularly dangerous pathogens transmitted by birds in Ukraine during migration”; and the UP-8 Project for studying “spread of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and hantaviruses in Ukraine and the potential need for differential diagnosis of patients with suspected leptospirosis.” She also headed Project P-782, which investigated disease transmission through bats, according to previously disclosed records.
In early 2021, Wintrol switched to Chemical Security and Elimination (CSE). CSE was previously known as the Chemical Weapons Elimination (CWE) and Chemical Weapons Destruction (CWD) programs, according to a DTRA document. The effort “started in 1992 to build the capacity of the states of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) to reduce the threat from chemical weapons (CW) by securing and eliminating CW stockpiles, chemical research capabilities, and production facilities, while also redirecting scientists to peaceful purposes,” the agency said.
Russia’s MoD releases info on US involvement in Ukraine’s bioweapons research
© Photo : Russian Ministry of Defence
Steven L. Edwards
Edwards has been the CEO of Black & Veatch, an American engineering business that has long been a Pentagon contractor for a range of building projects, since 2013. He joined the firm in 1978 and previously served as its Chief Operating Officer.
Black & Veatch has long been known to collaborate on Pentagon initiatives in Ukraine, but records procured by Russian forces earlier this month divulged the company’s role in supervising biological programs in the country, including the UP-8 project, which analyses Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis, and hantaviruses.
Lance Lippencott
Since 2011, he has served as the project manager and biological project coordinator for Black & Veatch in Ukraine. He informed the Kansas City Business Journal in August 2021 that his efforts in Ukraine on airborne biological agents had aided Black & Veatch in developing a system for cleaning air of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, the pathogen that induces COVID-19. Lippencott is a West Point graduate of the United States Army Military Academy.
A report from Ukraine’s Kherson region’s Security Service was included in one of the papers disclosed by the MoD, and it mentioned “a potential threat to the epidemiological and epizootic situation in our country that has recently come to light as a result of DTRA’s intentions through Black & Veatch to establish control over the functioning of Ukrainian microbiological laboratories that conduct research into particularly dangerous pathogens that can be used to create or upgrade new types of biological weapons.”
David Mustra
“Issues of biomonitoring and transfer of information were supervised by David Mustra, who is closely associated with another Pentagon contractor, Metabiota,” Konashenkov said. “Previously, he led military bio-projects in Ukraine and Eastern Europe as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.”
Mustra was the firm’s biosafety recruitment manager in Ukraine, as well as the biosurveillance and control managers and the research and development director.
Russia’s MoD releases info on US involvement in Ukraine’s bioweapons research
© Photo : Russian Ministry of Defence
Mary Guttieri
Guttieri, who holds a doctorate in microbiology from UMass Amherst, served as Metabiota’s Executive Vice President from 2014 to 2019, and was formerly the company’s Vice President of Technology and Science Administration. At Labyrinth Global Health, she has become the head researcher.
Guttieri was the integrator of research programs for the US biology program in Ukraine, and she oversaw the implementation of biological programs involving the study of animals as disease vectors.
Nita Madhav
Since 2019, Madhav has led Metabiota as its CEO. With a PhD in Public Health, she focuses in epidemiology and pandemics. The Russian Ministry of Defense, on the other hand, claims that there was no evidence in the records that she was in charge of any particular biological activities in Ukraine.
Scott Thornton
Between 2006 and 2016, Thorton worked for Metabiota as a senior microbiologist and lab start-up coordinator. He served as a research microbiologist and the chief of the Navy’s Threat Assessment Department for the past 20 years in the US Navy. Thornton “conducted research on disease agents of military relevance, especially enteric pathogens” at covert sites, as per his CV, one of which is in Cairo, Egypt.
Thornton advised local workers in DTRA projects in Ukraine on extremely hazardous pathogens and other epidemic disease-related concerns, and organized the update of reference labs in Ukraine to biosafety level 3 (BSL-3), which can be used to research contagious agents or toxins that can be spread via the air and induce potentially deadly infections.