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Moscow believes that laboratories in Ukraine funded by the US military were making biological weapons components, but that local staff was being kept in the dark about their research, a senior Russian general said on Thursday. Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, who commands the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces of Russia, presented documents and imagery showing why the military has come to such a conclusion. “We believe that components of biological weapons were being made on the territory of Ukraine,” said Kirillov. He noted that the documents he was presenting “have the signatures of real officials and are certified by the seals of organizations,” for those journalists and experts in the West doubting their veracity. One document, dated March 6, 2015 confirms the “direct participation of the Pentagon in the financing of military biological projects in Ukraine,” Kirillov said. The US officially funded the projects through the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, accordi...

Officials in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have claimed that a missile allegedly launched by Ukrainian forces on Monday was aimed at a residential area in their capital city, but was intercepted by air defense systems before reaching its target. However, a portion of the rocket still ended up falling on a densely populated area of Donetsk, killing more than 20 people, some of whom were children, and leaving at least 36 injured. Kiev has denied responsibility for the attack, which has been barely reported by Western media, insisting it was “unmistakably a Russian rocket” and that “there’s no point talking about it.” However, reports from the ground suggest that the downed missile was a Tochka-U rocket, commonly used by the Ukrainian military. This type of missile, dubbed SS-21 Scara by NATO, is a mobile launch system developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Russia has phased...

The UK expressed disappointment on Thursday over India’s unwillingness to join the international community in condemning the Russian government for launching its military assault on Ukraine. The British trade minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, told reporters that the UK is “very disappointed” by the approach taken by its “Indian partners,” expressing “hope that their views will change.” Despite the critical comments from the UK minister, she told reports that, regardless of India’s position, the South Asian nation is “an incredibly important trading partner for the UK.” Zelensky calls on Germany to ‘tear down the wall’ in Europe Read more Zelensky calls on Germany to ‘tear down the wall’ in Europe New Delhi has, so far, avoided joining other members of the international community in condemning the Ukraine conflict, saying it maintains a neutral position. India, together with China and several other states, abstained during a vote in the UN on Russia’s military operation. The South Asi...

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday it will soon release additional documents pertaining to the operation of Pentagon-funded biolabs in Ukraine. Moscow believes they have been involved in bioweapons research. Russian military specialists in weapons of mass destruction are analyzing documents obtained from staff members of the Ukrainian labs, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a daily briefing. He claimed they detailed “implementation by the US in Ukraine of a secret project to study the ways humans can be infected from bats,” which was done in Kharkov. The official said the same Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine in the Ukrainian city worked for years to study under which conditions wild birds carrying flu could cause an epidemic in humans and to assess the damage that would result. Konashenkov didn’t explain why such research should be considered military in nature, as assessed by the defense ministry. Th...

The Italian newspaper La Stampa said on Thursday it didn’t do anything wrong when it printed a frontpage image showing the aftermath of a ballistic missile strike on Donetsk, the capital of a breakaway republic in eastern Ukraine, while promising readers coverage of Russian attacks in Kiev and Lvov. The photo was meant to demonstrate the “clear horror of the war” and not to assign blame to any particular party, editor-in-chief Massimo Giannini said in an interview with La7 TV channel, responding to criticism of his editorial choices. He said his newspaper didn’t try to mislead readers, despite what detractors said. “The thing that bothers me most and pains me a lot is that there are also some people here in Italy, some disgraced people of the web, who amplify this and call it a case of disinformation. Where is the disinformation?” he demanded. The Wednesday print issue of the paper featured a full-page photo of a street littered with dead bodies, with a man covering his face in gri...

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused the West of waging hybrid warfare against his country due to the long-standing tradition of Russophobia. He believes that despite enormous pressure, Moscow will defend its vision of the world order. “The frenzied Russophobia of the West, apparently, will never reach the bottom. The expansion of NATO to our borders, the economic and information war unleashed against our country on all fronts, endless threats and intimidation, the fierce persecution of our citizens abroad. All this is the reason for the extreme aggravation of the international situation that the whole world is experiencing these days,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram on Thursday. The senior official also accused Western leaders of double standards and hypocrisy, calling their policies towards Moscow immoral and criminal. “We sincerely strived to have a good relationship with them,” he said. Medvedev added that Russia has been lied to and taken advantage of for many decad...

China has dismissed calls from NATO for it not to support Russia in any way on Thursday, reminding the bloc it was its US-led forces which bombed its embassy in Belgrade during the 1999 attack on Yugoslavia. “Chinese people can fully relate to the pains and sufferings of other countries because we will never forget who had bombed our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. We need no lecture on justice from the abuser of international law,” a spokesman for the Beijing’s diplomatic mission to the EU said, responding to remarks made by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Branding NATO a “Cold War remnant,” the diplomat suggested the organization needed to do some self-reflection to examine if it was contributing to world peace and stability, with its expansion and military operations. Stoltenberg targeted China on Tuesday ahead of a NATO defense ministers’ emergency meeting. He suggested Beijing should “join the rest of the world in condemning strongly the brutal invasion ...