Newsweek: Gabbard reveals declassified map, records of Ukraine Bio labs

Tulsi Gabbard
Photo: You Tube

Outgoing Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard released declassified documents related to what she said was new evidence of United States-funded bio labs in more than 30 countries, including Ukraine.

The documents, still partially redacted, detailed the locations and functions of various labs which "likely housed dangerous pathogens."

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said some of the labs were vulnerable because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war but had been intentionally covered up by previous administrations.

"Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have, politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration's national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth," Gabbard said in a press release.

Newsweek reached out to former President Joe Biden for comment via the contact form on his office's website.

Gabbard declassified the documents in April, but they weren't released until Friday. They claim that Ukraine has more than 40 labs built and supported in part by the U.S.

The slides highlight the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine (IECVM) in Kharkiv, with some of the key points that the site:

• Houses “at least some dangerous pathogens”
• Has “almost certainly” been vulnerable to Russian information operations, seizure or damage
• Has historical ties to Soviet-era biological research
• Conducts work on:
• Veterinary medicine
• Virology
• Toxicology

There is also a claim that the facility had biosafety deficiencies, especially in areas handling Brucella bacteria, and that a virology building basement exists.

Some of the pathogens handled or stored at the labs included anthrax, Ebola and swine fever.

The documents also make clear that U.S. involvement has gone beyond infrastructure, including training Ukrainian scientists in biocontainment practices and funding research into infectious diseases, such as studies on highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The intelligence assessment is framed primarily around risk. It highlights concerns that some of the facilities could be vulnerable in a conflict environment—physically, through potential damage or seizure, and informationally, through their use in foreign narratives.

One lab in Kharkiv is specifically described as housing dangerous pathogens and being exposed to security risks and allegations from Russia about U.S.-linked biological weapons activity.

Slides repeatedly point to the possibility that such sites could be exploited in “information operations,” with Moscow already accusing the U.S. of conducting biological weapons work at Ukrainian facilities.

What the documents confirm is relatively narrow but important: There is documented U.S. funding and collaboration with Ukrainian laboratories that handle high-risk pathogens for research, diagnostic and public health purposes.

It also shows that the labs are part of a broader scientific and biodefense-related network involving contractors, government support and international research partnerships.

The slides, however, leave significant gaps. They do not provide direct evidence that the facilities are engaged in offensive biological weapons development, even as they reference allegations to that effect.

The briefing is also limited in scope, with redactions and high-level summaries that do not fully detail oversight structures, the exact nature of all research being conducted, or how widespread any identified biosafety concerns might be.

Taken together, the material documents the existence of a U.S.-backed biological research infrastructure in Ukraine and outlines the risks associated with it—particularly in a wartime and information warfare context—while stopping short of substantiating more serious claims about illicit weapons activity.

"ODNI will continue to work closely with partners across the government to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain to end dangerous Gain-of-Function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the American people and people around the world," Gabbard said in a press release.

The ODNI said that evidence of the full existence and funding of these labs had been withheld from the American people intentionally, by "powerful people" who had claimed they did not exist.

When the government had been asked about the labs in the past, the ODNI said they had been accused of being foreign assets and traitors to the U.S.

The allegation in the ODNI release that the Biden administration obscured U.S. links to overseas biological research fits into a broader pattern seen across the Trump administration’s messaging on national security and public health issues.

In multiple cases, Trump officials have argued that prior administrations or federal agencies misled the public, suppressed key information or shaped narratives for political or institutional reasons. This framing has been especially prominent in debates over sensitive topics involving intelligence, scientific research and potential national security risks.

The clearest parallel is the Trump administration’s handling of COVID‑19 origins, where officials and White House materials accused public health authorities and intelligence agencies of downplaying or dismissing the lab‑leak theory. In public statements and government communications, officials argued that alternative explanations were “disfavored” or marginalized, and that federal agencies lacked transparency in how they presented evidence to the public.

Similar claims extended to allegations that figures such as Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and agencies like the National Institutes of Health obstructed or shaped investigations into the COVID-19 pandemic’s origins, reinforcing the idea that the government had steered public understanding of a high-stakes biosecurity issue.

Beyond public health, Trump officials have also made comparable accusations in the intelligence and political sphere. An executive order in 2025 asserted that former intelligence officials coordinated to discredit reporting related to Hunter Biden's laptop, describing it as an effort that “suppressed information essential to the American people” and manipulated public perception during an election.

US’ biolab network used to target enemies worldwide, Ukraine just the tip of the iceberg

Photo: AP

“All of the Ukrainian bioweapons labs are administered by the US military,” Bioweapon Truth Commission co-founder Jeff J. Brown told Sputnik, commenting on DNI Gabbard’s bombshell confirmation that everything Russia’s NBC Protection Troops have been saying about these labs is true.

The US “benefits from having some of the most dangerous pathogens known to man, to attack the West’s many perceived enemies,” Brown explained, pointing to allegations of the US using swine fever and avian flu to target China in recent years, and similar campaigns against Cuba, Russia and Iran.

That’s not to mention the role played by Big Pharma – which wants “to create epidemics as a justification to get billions in vaccine contracts.”

Following the money

The US and its allies “will never stop developing bioweapons around the world. It’s too lucrative for the military, Big Pharma, contractors and politicians.” Bioweapons “are a many multi-billion-dollar industry,” Brown says.

“Ukraine is just one of scores of countries around the world where US/NATO are developing lethal pathogens to attack [their] many enemies. Not counting Ukraine, the US military has over 330 bioweapon labs across Planet Earth, concentrated in the Global South.”

As for the Biological Threat Reduction Program - the official initiative the Pentagon uses to justify these labs' work, that's just a cover, Brown says.

"The Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) is simply a straw man to deflect the fact that the US military and its NATO vassals are the drivers of global bioweapon production and attacks. BTRP is a smoke screen and a money-spinning contractor, nothing more."

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