“Biolabs in Ukraine” have resurfaced in the USA: how a Russian fake reached American intelligence

The scandal surrounding ‘biolabs in Ukraine’ has returned to American politics. This time, the reason was materials disseminated by the Director of National Intelligence of the United States, Tulsi Gabbard. They claim that Washington allegedly secretly funded more than 120 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world, including Ukraine.

But the story quickly went off script.

Journalists and researchers noticed: part of the published data resembles not a new product of American intelligence, but materials previously used by Russian special services and propagandists. Moreover, the documents contained a map of Ukraine with gross errors — ones that are hard to imagine in a serious intelligence report.

For Israel, this is not an unfamiliar topic. A country that faces daily information attacks from Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and their allies understands well: lies rarely come in the form of crude propaganda. More often, they appear as a ‘document’, ‘leak’, ‘map’, ‘expert report’, or ‘alternative version of events’.

How an old Russian myth got new packaging in the USA

Tulsi Gabbard stated that the American authorities allegedly hid information about foreign biological laboratories from citizens. A separate emphasis was placed on Ukraine: the materials spoke of the risks of one of the laboratories being captured or damaged by the Russian side, as well as the storage of dangerous samples.

At first glance, this may sound like a typical biosecurity topic. In any country, there are laboratories where viruses, bacteria, food poisoning, epidemiological threats, and dangerous pathogens are studied. After the collapse of the USSR, such programs in Eastern Europe were indeed of particular importance: it was necessary to control the Soviet legacy, modernize infrastructure, and reduce the risk of leaks of dangerous materials.

But Russian propaganda has been telling a completely different story for years. Not about sanitary safety. Not about epidemiological surveillance. Not about protecting the population.

But about ‘Pentagon secret laboratories’, ‘biological weapons’, ‘genetic viruses’, ‘combat mosquitoes’, infected birds, and bats.

It sounds absurd, but these are exactly the plots that the Kremlin actively promoted before the full-scale invasion and after February 24, 2022. Russian terrorists destroyed Ukrainian cities, and Russian TV channels explained to viewers that Moscow was allegedly ‘defending’ itself from secret threats.

Now a similar narrative has reappeared in the American agenda. And this is no longer just another social media dispute. If materials with signs of Russian origin have indeed made it into documents disseminated on behalf of American intelligence, it becomes a problem for the USA, Ukraine, Israel, and all allies who depend on the accuracy of information.

The map that revealed the problem

A separate scandal was caused by the map of Ukraine attached to the materials.

On it, Kyiv is displayed incorrectly. One of the names looks like the erroneous ‘Cherniv’ or ‘Cherniv’. Crimea, temporarily occupied by Russia, was included in the list of objects. And ‘Zakarpattia’ was indicated as if it were a separate city, although it is a region of Ukraine.

Such errors do not resemble technical trifles. This is a red flag.

When a document claims to be at the level of intelligence material, geography must be accurate. City names — verified. The map — professional. If it contains errors at the level of random generation or poor retelling of someone else’s material, the main question arises: who prepared this and who checked it?

There is a suggestion that the map could have been created using artificial intelligence or assembled from dubious sources. But even if it’s ‘only’ negligence, the result is dangerous. Because Russian propaganda gets what it needs: not proof, but a reason to claim that ‘even in the USA, they recognized Ukrainian biolabs’.

What really stands behind the laboratories in Ukraine

In Ukraine, there are indeed biological, medical, sanitary, and veterinary laboratories. Just like in Israel. Just like in the USA. Just like in any country that wants to control epidemics, diagnose diseases, check food safety, and respond to outbreaks of infections.

These are not secret military bases.

They do not belong to the Pentagon. They do not engage in the creation of biological weapons. They do not develop ‘ethnic viruses’ and do not train birds for attacks on Russia.

Their work is related to what in a normal state is called biosecurity. After the Soviet period, Ukraine, like other countries in the region, needed to modernize the laboratory system. International cooperation in this area was supposed to reduce threats, not create new ones.

But the Kremlin needed a different picture. Russian disinformation takes a real fact — the existence of laboratories — and turns it into a fantasy about a secret military network. This is how propaganda works: it does not invent everything from scratch, but steals a piece of reality and attaches convenient lies to it.

For readers in Israel, this is a particularly familiar mechanism. After Hamas attacks, rocket strikes, Iranian threats, and campaigns against the IDF, the world sees again and again how the aggressor tries to turn the picture upside down: the terrorist becomes ‘resistance’, the victim — ‘provocateur’, and self-defense — ‘crime’.

In the middle of this story, it is important to say directly: NAnovosti — Israel News | Nikk.Agency considers the scandal around ‘biolabs in Ukraine’ not as a separate American intrigue, but as an example of how Russian lies can change packaging, pass through Western political channels, and return already as an ‘official topic’.

Why this is important for Israel

Israelis know the price of fakes. Especially after October 7, when the information war became almost as constant as air raid sirens and front-line reports.

Against Israel, not only rockets, tunnels, and drones work. Photos without context, old videos with new captions, fake testimonies, distorted maps, manipulations around the humanitarian theme, and accusations that are first launched on social networks and then repeated by politicians and international activists.

Something similar is happening with Ukraine.

Russia destroys cities, kills civilians, deports children, strikes at energy and civilian infrastructure. And at the same time produces justifications: ‘biolabs’, ‘NATO threat’, ‘Nazis’, ‘protection of Russian speakers’. The goal is one — to make the world argue not about Russian aggression, but about the fictional reasons for this aggression.

For Israelis with Ukrainian roots, this connection is especially obvious. Ukraine defends itself against the Russian army. Israel defends itself against the terrorist and Iranian axis. In both cases, the enemy tries not only to attack physically but also to steal the victim’s right to be called a victim.

Why the scandal around Gabbard’s materials is dangerous for the West

The conversation about biosecurity itself is not a problem. States have the right to check programs, funding, laboratories, control of dangerous materials, and transparency of international cooperation. In a democratic system, such issues should be discussed.

The problem begins where verification turns into a channel for foreign disinformation.

If data resembling Russian preparations are published under the guise of intelligence materials, it hits several directions at once. On trust in American institutions. On Ukraine, which is again forced to fend off an old fake. On US allies, who need to understand that Washington distinguishes real threats from propaganda constructs.

And on Israel too.

Because today the Russian narrative may be directed against Ukraine, and tomorrow a similar mechanism will be used against Israel. First, a ‘map’ appears. Then a ‘document’. Then an ‘expert’. Then a politician says: ‘We need to figure it out’. And now the terrorist or dictatorial version of events begins to look to part of the audience like an acceptable point of view.

This is the danger of modern information warfare. It does not always require people to fully believe the lie. Sometimes it is enough for them to stop believing the facts.

Main conclusion

The fake about ‘biolabs in Ukraine’ was and remains one of the longest-running series of Russian propaganda. Its task is not to prove the existence of biological weapons, but to blur Russia’s responsibility for the war.

There are laboratories in Ukraine. They deal with medical, sanitary, veterinary, and biological safety. Such systems are needed by every state that wants to protect people from epidemics, infections, and dangerous outbreaks.

But when the aggressor turns normal healthcare infrastructure into a ‘secret weapon’, he attacks not only Ukraine. He attacks the very possibility of talking about facts.

The scandal around Gabbard’s materials showed that Russian propaganda does not disappear after exposure. It waits for a convenient moment, changes language, changes design, gets a new logo — and returns. Sometimes through social networks. Sometimes through politicians. Sometimes through documents that should protect the truth, not serve someone else’s lies.

For Ukraine, Israel, and allies, this is a lesson. The war of the 21st century is not only on land and in the air. It goes on in maps, headlines, presentations, reports, and ‘leaks’. And if a false map is not dismantled in time, a real missile may follow.