“There are NO BSL-4 labs in Ukraine. Period.”
I’m not disputing that. What I am saying is that none of the labs in Ukraine were up to any BSL safety protocol at all until after the Soviet Union fell and we began to help them upgrade the labs. However we were not granted full access to at least one facility, the Melnikov AP facility in Odessa, which is one of the 2 labs in Ukraine that was dealing with the most deadly pathogens. The inspectors reported that they were only able to inspect the outside security measures at that lab and not the lab itself.
I believe Ukraine later, after 2005, upgraded that lab to BSL-3 without direct Western participation. So we have no way of knowing what is contained in that lab, whether it is BSL-4 or not.
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Black & Veatch completed Ukraine’s first Biological Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory in Odessa on time and under budget. The new facility enhances the government’s existing disease surveillance systems to detect, report and respond to bioterrorism attacks, epidemics and potential pandemics.
As integrating contractor, Black & Veatch is responsible to DTRA and the Ministry of Health for the full rollout of the BTRP in Ukraine. Black & Veatch is ensuring the mission’s success by training Ukrainian personnel in molecular diagnostics, biosafety, operations and maintenance, and laboratory management techniques. This training, along with three years of gradually decreasing sustainment and transition support, will provide Ukrainian scientists with the necessary resources to manage the BSL-3 laboratory and the Ukrainian biosurveillance system going forward
https://www.bv.com/projects/state-art-diagnostics-laboratory-helps-make-world-safer
We had a lab building program in the early 2000s that was a reaction to the anthrax scare of 9-11.
We helped countries build labs to be part of an early warning system for both terrorism and for natural disease outbreaks. IIRC these were BSL-3 labs and something like 30 countries were involved. Ukraine was one of them.
This was either a State Dept or DoD program or maybe a mix of the two. I ran across this program back when some Russian general was accusing Ukraine of having bioweapons labs.