China & Russia accuse US of 'developing biological weapons' in Ukraine amid invasion

As Russia continues its attack on Ukraine, both China and Russia have accused the US of 'developing biological weapons' in Ukrainian laboratories bordering Russian territory. Addressing the media on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed that the components of the 'biological weapons' were being prepared in Ukraine, which was echoed by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian later in the day- naming US. Russia continues to inch closer to Kyiv- where Ukrainian President Zelenskyy stands determined.

Russia & China accuse US of 'developing biological weapons' 

"We can conclude that components of biological weapons were being developed in Ukrainian laboratories in direct proximity to Russian territory, said Zakharova. Echoing it, Lijian later said, "The US has 336 labs in 30 countries under its control, including 26 in Ukraine alone. It should give a full account of its biological military activities at home and abroad and subject itself to multilateral verification". UN's Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological and toxin weapons. 183 states including US, China, Ukraine and Russia have signed the treaty.

On the other hand, Chinese President Xi Jinping has held a virtual summit with German chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. He maintained that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected, security concerns of all countries must be taken seriously, and all efforts that are conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be supported. Moreover, he also urged them to support the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, and offered humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Putin has issued three demands to stop his attack on Kyiv - Ukraine cease military action, change its constitution to enshrine neutrality, acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory, and recognise the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, "I think that items regarding temporarily occupied territories and pseudo-republics not recognized by anyone but Russia, we can discuss and find a compromise", in an interview to ABC news. He has also said, "We have understood NATO is not prepared to accept Ukraine".

For weeks, Moscow massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine's borders in a bid to pressurise Western nations to not allow Ukraine to join NATO, threatening an invasion. Last week, Putin ordered a special military operation in Ukraine's Donbas region, which quickly accelerated into precision airstrikes on Kyiv, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, deployed tanks towards Lviv from the Belarus-Ukraine border. Russia has already taken over Kherson, two Ukrainian nuclear power plants - Chernobyl &  Zaporizhzhya and is heading towards Yuzhnoukrainsk. Over 2 million Ukrainians have fled and many are housed in bomb shelters.