US has funded Ukraine bio weapon research since 2005 - documents

The United States has been funding biological research facilities in Ukraine for the past 17 years documents have revealed

 The agreement was entered into on August 29, 2005 in Kiev.

A publicly-available document shows a $15 million agreement signed between the US Department of Defense and Ukraine’s Health Ministry to support research into biological weapon research in Kiev, Lvov and Odessa.

The US government t provided materials and training for “cooperative biological research, biological threat agent detection and response, and improving biological material protection, control and accountability”.

“In order to assist UKraine in preventing the proliferation of technology, pathogens, and expertise that are located at the Scientific Research Institute of , Epidemiology and Hygiene (Lviv), the Ukrainian Scientific Research Anti-Plague Institute (Odessa), the Central Sanitary Epidemiological Station (Kyiv), and other facilities in Ukraine identified by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, and that could be used in the development of biological weapons, the US Department of Defense shall provide assistance to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine at no cost, subject to the availability of funds appropriated for this purpose, in accordance with the terms of this Agreement,” reads the first article.

Details were to be withheld from public disclosure, but “state secrets of Ukraine” were to be shared with the US Defense Dept.

“Information marked or designated by the U.S. Department of Defense as "sensitive" should be withheld from public disclosure by the Government of Ukraine. The Parties shall minimize the number of persons who have access to information that is designated "sensitive" or "restricted information" in accordance with Paragraph 2 of this article,” reads part of the agreement.