Context: On June 12, 2026, Tulsi Gabbard, the then-U.S. Director of National Intelligence, released data on funding for over 120 biolaboratories in over 30 countries worldwide. More than 40 of these labs were in Ukraine. The existence of laboratories in Ukraine funded by the United States was already publicly known. In 2022, when asked whether Ukraine possessed chemical or biological weapons, then-U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland replied that Ukraine has biological research facilities. The Gabbard report details the number of laboratories, their locations, and the pathogens they store.
During the ONT program Propaganda on June 15, 2026, Ihar Tur claimed that U.S. intelligence merely confirmed what Belarusian propaganda had been saying all along.
“Then, after some time passes, it turns out that the propaganda was right. Take the biological laboratories in Ukraine, for example. We said they existed, that they were funded and controlled by the United States. We were accused of making it all up. Last week, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents confirming that Washington had funded more than 120 biological laboratories in over 30 countries around the world for many years. Among them, the United States built and continues to support a network of more than 40 biological laboratories in Ukraine,” Tur said.
However, in 2022, Belarusian media outlets reported on more than just the existence of biolaboratories. They claimed that military biological laboratories were operating in Ukraine, allegedly developing biological weapons.
On March 26, 2022, an ONT news anchor reported: “The British Daily Mail and the American New York Post have published investigative reports on military-biological laboratories in Ukraine.”
On March 9, 2022, SBTV reported: “The Russian Ministry of Defense previously announced the discovery of over 30 biological laboratories in Ukraine. Biological weapons components were developed at these facilities.”
On March 14, 2022, Ihar Tur himself said on the same program: “On top of that, it was revealed last week that there were biological laboratories on Ukrainian territory where biological weapons were being developed, as it turns out. Washington has actually confirmed their existence.”
In other words, Tur and the Belarusian media tried to convince viewers that not only were there biological laboratories in Ukraine, but also that these laboratories were military facilities engaged in developing biological weapons.
The documents declassified by Tulsi Gabbard do not support this claim. There is no evidence in the documents of the development of biological weapons or the conduct of military biological research in Ukraine. Gabbard stated that many of the 120 laboratories worldwide have conducted or are currently conducting research involving dangerous, highly contagious pathogens. In some cases, this involved dangerous gain-of-function research, but she did not specify where exactly such work was conducted.
Regarding Ukraine, the declassified documents state that the United States funded Ukrainian scientists’ research into the genomes of highly pathogenic avian influenza and other highly infectious viruses. Project titles include “Development and Use of the Express Method of Avian Influenza Virus Diagnostics Based on Reverse Transcription-Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP)” or “Analysis of the Threat of Spread of African Swine Fever and Classical Swine Fever in Wild Boar Populations in Ukraine.” Although avian influenza and swine fever viruses are dangerous, that does not prove that biological weapons are being developed.
The document only mentions military developments in a historical context. It states that some Ukrainian laboratories still store pathogens from Soviet-era biological weapons. The authors also mention that the Kharkiv Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine may have participated in Soviet biological weapons programs in the past.
However, U.S. intelligence has not provided evidence suggesting that Ukraine or any of the other 30 countries is currently developing biological weapons. Furthermore, in March 2022, Gabbard herself wrote that she does not believe there are laboratories in Ukraine developing biological weapons.
“I’m not convinced there are biological weapons labs or biological weapons in Ukraine — that’s not what I’m concerned about. I’m concerned about the existence of the 25+ biological labs in that warzone,” she stated.
Ihar Tur presented documents on funding for biological research as evidence of his earlier claim that Ukraine hosted a network of military biolaboratories. However, there is a fundamental difference between the existence of biological laboratories and the work they do with dangerous pathogens and the development of biological weapons. Claims made by ONT regarding military biolaboratories in Ukraine have not been confirmed by declassified U.S. documents.
