Russia demands U.S. explain bio-lab activities in Ukraine - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW. March 9 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has demanded that the United States provide detailed information about the work done by biological laboratories in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

"We believe that the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. presidential administration should provide information to the international public in the near future. This should be done officially, rather than via their talking heads, in regard to the programs conducted in Ukraine," Zakharova said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

"Data, materials, documents, please put everything on the table," she said.

Russia "does not ask, it demands," Zakharova said.

The labs were developing biological weapons, and the most dangerous pathogens were destroyed to prevent violations of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention by Ukraine and the United States from being exposed, she said.

There is no answer to the question whether the biological weapons developed in those labs were destroyed or had fallen into the hands of nationalists, Zakharova said.

"The information confirms that Russia had reasons to make its repeated claims about the compliance of military biological projects of the United States and its allies in the post-Soviet space with the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. Resolute measures are necessary to strengthen the convention regime in order to prevent the incompliance of military biological activity with its provisions," she said.

Moscow do not rule out that the convention provisions regarding relevant consultations may be activated.