Kyiv, Washington might have breached Biological Weapons Convention - Duma's Slutsky

MOSCOW. March 9 (Interfax) - United States Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland's admission that the U.S. has run biological labs in Ukraine may indicate that Kyiv and Washington have violated the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Wednesday.

"For years, there has been a direct threat to security not only to our country, but the region, the European continent, or even perhaps the entire world (as the pandemic record shows) right at Russia's doorstep," Slutsky wrote on his Telegram channel on Wednesday.

"The American patrons of the Kyiv regime understand clearly that, if Russian experts gain access to laboratory samples, which have been hastily eliminated in Ukraine since February 24, it's very likely that this would confirm that Kyiv and Washington have breached the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention," he said.

"And what if these developments fall into the hands of extremists and nationalists?" Slutsky said. "Do the American authorities realize consequences of possible provocations?" he said.

Nuland said earlier that the U.S. was concerned that Russia could gain access to U.S. biological laboratories in Ukraine during its special operation.

"Ukraine has biological research facilities, which, in fact, we are now quite concerned Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of," Nuland said at hearings on Ukraine at the U.S. Senate.