Russia and Ukraine Current Events

[obiwanbenobi]

With recent attacks on gasoline supplies the Russians are having a harder time of it. I sure hope the Russians can be pushed out entirely but that does take soldiers and weapons to do it.

 

[FatPhil]

The ODNI just published this:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ODNI News Release No. 10-26
June 12, 2026
DNI Gabbard Reveals Evidence of U.S. Taxpayer-Funded Global Biolab Program

WASHINGTON D.C. — After months of searching through Intelligence Community holdings and files, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is revealing new evidence of longstanding United States government funding for more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries. These biolabs include labs in Ukraine, which may be at risk of compromise due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. For example, the Intelligence Community previously warned that a US-funded biolab in Ukraine likely housed dangerous pathogens and remained vulnerable to longstanding threats of Russian attack, seizure, or damage.

The newly declassified evidence can be found HERE.

https://www.odni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-2026/4163-pr-10-26
"here" pointing to https://www.dni.gov/files/BIOLAB_Slides.pdf

Check the map on page 2:

Kyiv's out by 300km, and what is "Cherniv" (that ain't where Chernihiv is, for reference, that's dead north)? Also - what's "New Castles disease" (maybe this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virulent_Newcastle_disease ?)

So, was this really a document created by the US intelligence community, as she claims, or has Tulsi been regurgitating Russian propaganda again?

 

[Mauro]

Yeah, biolabs are old Russian propaganda from the start of the war.

 

[John J.]

The ODNI just published this:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ODNI News Release No. 10-26
June 12, 2026
DNI Gabbard Reveals Evidence of U.S. Taxpayer-Funded Global Biolab Program

WASHINGTON D.C. — After months of searching through Intelligence Community holdings and files, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is revealing new evidence of longstanding United States government funding for more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries. These biolabs include labs in Ukraine, which may be at risk of compromise due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. For example, the Intelligence Community previously warned that a US-funded biolab in Ukraine likely housed dangerous pathogens and remained vulnerable to longstanding threats of Russian attack, seizure, or damage.

This appears to be connected to the well-known conspiracy theory, arguably given added credibility Tulsi Gabbard in the past, that the US has been funding laboratories in Ukraine that are (it is implied) connected to biological warfare research.

In March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials falsely claimed that public health facilities in Ukraine were "secret U.S.-funded biolabs" purportedly developing biological weapons, which was debunked by multiiple media outlets, scientific groups, and international bodies. The claim was amplified by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chinese state media, and was also promoted by followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory and subsequently supported by other far-right groups in the United States.

Wikipedia, Ukraine bioweapons conspiracy theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_bioweapons_conspiracy_theory

The US cooperates with, and sometimes helps fund, health research and disease monitoring in many countries.
There is no evidence that any laboratories in (post-Soviet) Ukraine were or are involved in bioweapons research, or that Ukraine ever had such a program, or any WMD program after Ukraine ceded the large nuclear arsenal it legally inherited from the USSR to Russia, in return for security assurances from Russia, the USA and UK (the Budapest Memorandum of 1994). Those assurances proved to be worthless.
Since that time Russian authorities have used prohibited radiological and chemical weapons to murder people in the UK and its Syrian Baathist allies used prohibited chemical weapons against civilians.

Political scientist and espionage scholar Thomas Rid suggests this may be a case of the Kremlin "accusing the other side of the thing they are in fact doing" based on historical precedent (accusation in a mirror)... ...The Kremlin has a history of fomenting conspiracy theories about ordinary biology labs in former Soviet republics, having previously spread propaganda about Georgia and Kazakhstan similar to recent accusations deployed against Ukraine

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_bioweapons_conspiracy_theory

Gabbard, along with others, has been criticized for her phrasing in connection with the Russian allegations, which she appeared to give weight to (while later clarifying she didn't state that Ukraine had bioweapons research laboratories),

On March 9, 2022, Tucker Carlson, after airing a video of the State Department's Victoria Nuland saying "[W]e are now quite concerned Russian troops... may be seeking to gain control of (Ukraine's biological research facilities), so we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces",[46]​ asked Gabbard "How concerned are you that... there are unsecured bio agents, dangerous bio agents in Ukraine?" Gabbard responded: "I'm extremely concerned... The seriousness of this situation really can't be overstated... We have these pathogens in the midst of a war zone [in] between 20 and 30 labs in Ukraine. This is a global crisis."[47]​ On March 13, Gabbard called for a ceasefire in the vicinity of the labs "until they're secured and these pathogens are destroyed."[48]​[49]​

Forbes reported that Gabbard "shared false information" and asserted there was "no evidence of the U.S. supporting biological labs in Ukraine."[28]​ Sen. Mitt Romney tweeted that Gabbard was "parroting false Russian propaganda" and that her "treasonous lies may well cost lives."[50]​[51]​

On March 14, when Carlson asked Gabbard for her response to Romney, she said: "This is about facts. ... They're accusing me of saying that somehow there are bioweapons labs in Ukraine. I've said no such thing at any point. I have said that there are biolabs in Ukraine that have received U.S. support that contained dangerous pathogens."[52]​ Gabbard then posted to Romney on Twitter, asking him to "provide evidence that what I said is untrue and treasonous.... Evidence of the existence of such biolabs, their vulnerability, and thus the need to take immediate action to secure them is beyond dispute",[53]​[54]​ citing Nuland's March 7 Senate testimony,[55]​ a Pentagon's March 11 Fact sheet,[56]​ CBS Face the Nation,[57]​ a CNN fact-check,[58]​ and U.S. Embassy in Kyiv statement all acknowledging U.S.-funded labs in Ukraine working with pathogens

Wikipedia as above.

See also Wikipedia, Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard, section Controversy about US biological research in Ukraine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polit...versy_about_US_biological_research_in_Ukraine

Gabbard has been the Director of National Intelligence since 2025, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsi_Gabbard

This is speculation, but perhaps the 12 June 2026 release (post #1322) is an attempt to show there was evidence for Gabbard's concerns/ what she said in 2022; she might have been hurt by the criticism. If this is the case, I feel it is unhelpful, petty, and it might resurrect a discredited and deliberately malicious conspiracy theory that was designed to influence perceptions of Ukraine and US support for Ukraine.