Ukraine has become an “instrument of U.S. foreign policy” and a “testing site for military biological experiments,” Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged on Oct. 26.
He made the remarks at a meeting of security chiefs from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a regional grouping established in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Along with Russia, CIS members include Belarus, Moldova, and six Central Asian countries.
“The potential for conflict remains very high, both in the world as a whole and at the regional level,” Putin told meeting attendees, according to the Kremlin’s official transcript of his remarks.
“The world is changing and becoming multipolar before our very eyes.”
Referring to Washington and other Western capitals, he asserted that “some members of the international community” were doing “everything in their power to preserve their faltering hegemony.”
He accused the latter of resorting to “subversive actions,” citing recent acts of sabotage against the Nord Stream pipeline, which links Russian gas fields to northern Europe via the Baltic Sea.
Late last month, the pipeline was intentionally breached in Swedish and Danish territorial waters, prompting a flurry of recriminations from Moscow and Western governments.
Putin said the neutralization of the strategic pipeline amounted to “the destruction of the common European energy infrastructure.”
In recent months, dwindling inflows of Russian gas have led to surging energy prices, affecting households and businesses across Europe.
The Russian president said the recent acts of sabotage “are doing colossal damage to the European economy and are seriously impairing the quality of life for millions of people.”
“And besides,” he added, “they are keeping silent about who has done this and who stands to gain from it.”
In mid-October, Swedish, Danish, and German investigators concluded that the pipeline breaches were caused by underwater explosions. Soon afterward, Stockholm abruptly halted joint investigations, citing concerns over “national security.”
This week, however, Sweden’s military announced plans to conduct a separate investigation.
“I can’t comment on what we are looking for, why we are there, but we had the need to come back to do an additional search,” a Swedish military spokesman said on Oct. 26.
Russia Repeats ‘Biolab’ Claims
Speaking to security chiefs in Moscow, Putin also brought up the situation in Ukraine, which, he said, had “lost its sovereignty” and had become “an instrument of U.S. foreign policy.”Ukraine, he alleged, had become a “testing site for military biological experiments” and was being “flooded with weapons, including heavy weaponry.”
In March, Moscow formally accused the United States of using Ukrainian laboratories for the development of biological weapons—a claim U.S. officials were quick to dismiss.
“There’s nothing to it,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at the time. “It’s classic Russian propaganda.”
The U.S. State Department, for its part, accused Russia of “inventing false pretexts in an attempt to justify its own horrific actions in Ukraine.”
This week, however, Russia appeared to double down on the claims.
On Oct. 25, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that Moscow had asked the U.N. Security Council to establish a commission to look into alleged breaches of the U.N.’s Convention on Biological Weapons by the United States and Ukraine.
Developments in the Field
Meanwhile, an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive in the southern region of Kherson is proving more difficult than expected due to rough terrain and rainy weather, according to Ukrainian military officials.“The south of Ukraine is an agricultural region, and we have a lot of irrigation and water supply channels, and the Russians use them like trenches,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told reporters on Oct. 26.
He also said that adverse weather conditions were hindering the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kherson.
“This is the rainy season; it’s very difficult to use fighting carrier vehicles with wheels,” he said. “The counteroffensive campaign in the Kherson direction is more difficult than in the Kharkiv direction.”
Last month, Ukrainian forces made significant gains in the northeastern Kharkiv region, driving Russian forces from several positions captured earlier. Since then, however, the counteroffensive has run up against much stiffer resistance along the southern front, including in Kherson.
Late last month, the Kherson region—along with the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia—was incorporated into the Russian Federation following referendums in all four territories.
Most of Kherson, including its regional capital, was captured by Russian forces and their local allies in the first weeks of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, which entered its ninth month this week.
On Oct. 27, Kherson’s Moscow-appointed deputy governor said the frontline remained “unchanged” and that Ukrainian forces had suffered “heavy losses” in repeated attempts to break through Russian defenses.
Heavy fighting is also being reported in other areas, including Avdiivka and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region and Kreminna and Svatove in Luhansk.
The Epoch Times was unable to verify the reports.
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