UN rejects Russia call for biological weapons probe

The Security Council on Wednesday rejected a resolution drafted by Russia calling for an investigation into its accusations of Washington's involvement in the alleged development of biological weapons in Ukraine.

Russia had officially requested last week a UN investigation into the accusations, which it has regularly made since the start of its offensive in Ukraine.

The resolution it put to the vote on Wednesday received two votes in favor (Russia and China), three against (France, the United States and Britain, which have veto power) and the 10 non-permanent members of the Council all abstained.

The text provided for the "establishment of a commission composed of all members of the Security Council to investigate the allegations against the United States and Ukraine" regarding their obligations under the convention that prohibits the development, production and use of biological weapons.

Deputy Russian Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy regretted the outcome of the vote, saying "Western countries demonstrated in every way that the law does not apply to them."

"This is a usual colonial mentality that we're used to and we're not even surprised by it," he added, promising to return to this issue at the review conference of the Biological Weapons Convention, from November 28 to December 16 in Geneva.

"The US voted against this resolution because it is based on disinformation, dishonesty, bad faith and a total lack of respect" for the Security Council, responded US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

This resolution is "a milestone for Russia's deception and lies" and "no one is buying it except China," she added.

The United States and Ukraine had already flatly rejected Russia's accusations last week, with the Americans calling them "pure fabrications."

The UN's Deputy High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Adedeji Ebo, reiterated at the time that the UN had no knowledge of such programs, and had no mandate or technical capacity to investigate the claims.