Minister of Health of Ukraine appealed to WHO with a request to refute Russian disinformation

Dear Dr. Ghebreyesus,

Dear Dr. Kluge,

Dear Dr Habicht,

The Russian invader, having no success on the battlefield, continues the information war.

The state propaganda of the Russian Federation has managed to find weapons among children, troops in maternity hospitals, and confuse ambulances for combat vehicles – all to justify their inhuman cruelty and ruthless attacks on civilians.

Today, one of the propaganda`s narratives is the search for imaginary biological and chemical weapons and traces of their development in Ukraine. The Russian military and diplomats, if they can be called that, full of confidence and are talking about secret developments in Ukrainian laboratories, the introduction of new strains of diseases and the production of biological weapons.

Of course, for any educated person, this is nothing more than a sick fantasy. Moreover, Russia is just as aware of what the post-Soviet system of laboratory centers is, how they work and what research they do.

Both in Belgorod and in Rostov, from where Russian tanks are intruding Ukraine, anyone can go to the relevant department of sanitary and epidemiological service and watch this work live.

But the people of Russia choose watching TV.

The WHO, European Regional Office and WHO Office in Ukraine have been helping the public health system in Ukraine for many years. Conducting evaluations, providing staff training etc. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic they helped us to receive equipment that detected the first cases of coronavirus in Ukraine, and now the invaders are ready to accuse Ukraine of creating this virus based on the availability of this equipment!

I urge you, as partners who are well acquainted with the system of biosafety and epidemiological surveillance in Ukraine, to make an official statement about absence of biological weapons or its research in Ukraine and the unacceptability of replacement of the light of science with the darkness of propaganda.

Let's stop propaganda together!